r= 


SUNSET  AT  RIO  HARBOR 


UNDERSTANDING 
SOUTH  AMERICA 


BY 

CLAYTON  SEDGWICK  COOPER 

Author  of  "The  Man  of  Egypt,"  "The  Brazilians  and 

Their  Country"  "American  Ideals" 

etc. 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  XBJr  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1918, 
By  George  H.  Dorm  Company 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


TO 
ROBERT  SCOTT 

ONE  OF  THE  MOST  THOUGHTFUL 
OF  FRIENDS 


385040 


PREFACE 

EDITH  WHARTON,  speaking  of  the  French 
nation,  has  given,  to  my  thinking,  a  most  excel- 
lent rule  for  those  who  attempt  to  write  of  nations 
other  than  their  own : 

There  are  only  two  ways  of  judging  the  character, 
of  a  people:  either,  if  one  is  of  them,  by  finding  the 
clue  to  their  idiosyncrasies  in  one's  self  and  one's  ante- 
cedents; or,  if  one  is  a  stranger,  by  seeking  it  in  the 
contrasts  between  the  aspirations  and  the  results  of 
the  race  one  is  studying  and  those  of  one's  own  people. 

He  who  writes  about  foreign  people,  saves  himself 
from  ineptitude,  if  not  from  downright  impertinence, 
by  the  use  of  sympathetic  imagination.  Dogmatism, 
provincial  opinion  and  sweeping  generalisations  are 
ruled  out  on  the  start  for  him  who  brings  eyes  for 
really  seeing  alien  nationalities.  Convictions  of  course 
are  possible  and  necessary;  providing  the  observer  has 
acquainted  himself  with  the  historical  background  of  a 
country,  and  stayed  long  enough,  and  not  too  long,  in 
the  land  to  meet  a  wide  circle  of  diverse  populations, 
bringing  to  his  experience  some  knowledge  of  men  and 
a  trained  observation. 

Yet  there  are  various  ways  of  expressing  personal 
convictions  relative  to  a  foreign  people.  The  Ger- 
man who  styled  the  Latin  Americans  in  general  as 
"thinly  veiled  Indians,"  and  the  man  who  visited  the 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

West  Coast  hurriedly  during  the  South  American  win- 
ter and  returned  to  his  homeland  to  write  of  his  ex- 
periences under  the  title,  "To  Hell  and  Back,"  were 
not  in  either  case  exactly  fitting  examples  of  the  way 
to  express  conclusions  about  our  neighbours  to  the  south. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  mistake  to  believe  that 
foreign  peoples  are  averse  to  being  written  about,  pro- 
viding they  are  not  ridiculed  or  held  up  to  caricature. 
It  is  quite  generally  recognised  that  the  observation  of 
a  foreigner  fixes  upon  certain  facts  and  traits  unre- 
garded or  seemingly  insignificant  to  the  native  inhabi- 
tants. These  trifling  details  to  which  the  dweller  in 
a  country  has  become  too  accustomed  to  note,  often 
throw  the  needed  light  upon  a  nation's  characteristics. 
The  unfamiliarity  of  the  alien  observer  with  the  people 
and  section  studied,  fits  him  for  his  task. 

In  these  times,  furthermore,  it  is  not  only  the  his- 
torian and  trade  expert  who  are  impelled  to  study  the 
character  and  acts  of  other  nationals.  The  war  has 
dissolved  territorial  and  geographical  barriers  and 
stirred  social  and  national  conditions  so  deeply  that 
the  average  reader  is  startled  out  of  his  isolation  and 
localism.  He  is  made  to  realise  the  world  at  large  in 
which  every  man  with  any  pretension  to  citizenship  or 
patriotism  forms  an  integral,  vital  part.  A  nation  is 
coming  to  be  considered  something  more  than  an  ani- 
mated business  machine.  When  millions  of  men  are 
laying  down  their  lives  for  an  ideal,  there  is  necessarily 
a  growing  necessity  to  understand  the  underlying 
nature  of  the  nations  with  whom  we  are  fighting  or 
having  relationships — their  traits,  their  traditions,  their 
history,  their  institutions,   and  even  their  prejudices 


PREFACE  ix 

begin  to  loom  larger  and  larger.  National  idealism 
becomes  the  fountain  head  of  national  industrialism. 
The  dreams  of  a  people  secure  a  place  alongside  of 
their  accomplishments;  the  soul  becomes  the  measure 
of  national  manhood  and  the  index  to  national  action. 
At  Chicago  in  191 6  President  Wilson  said: 

America  has  no  reason  for  being  unless  her  destiny 
and  duty  be  ideal.  It  is  her  incumbent  privilege  to  de- 
clare and  stand  for  the  rights  of  men.  Nothing  else 
is  worth  fighting  for  and  nothing  else  is  worth  sacri- 
ficing for. 

It  has  been  in  order  to  reveal  certain  of  the  prin- 
ciples actuating  the  men  of  South  America,  as  well  as 
to  describe  the  tendencies  and  conditions  of  their  lives 
and  country  that  this  book  has  been  written.  It  is 
still  too  literally  true  that  Americans  in  general  are 
blissfully  ignorant  of  the  real  motives  that  actuate  our 
southern  neighbours.  We  have  been  too  accustomed 
to  think  of  South  Americans  from  what  we  have  been 
pleased  to  consider  a  higher  plane.  As  a  rule  we  have 
not  realised  that  in  many  respects  South  Americans  are 
superior  to  North  Americans,  both  as  to  their  ideals 
and  the  manner  of  life  in  general.  One  meets  fre- 
quently with  foreigners,  who  know  well  these  people, 
from  whom  the  opinion  is  gained  that  the  educated 
classes  are  better  educated  and  are  sounder  in  their 
whole  view  of  life  than  are  our  own  inhabitants. 

It  has  been  too  common  also  to  judge  foreign  na- 
tions according  to  our  own  standard  and  to  consider 
that  our  standards,  both  ethical  and  commercial,  are 
absolute  ones.  It  is  easy  to  overlook  the  fact  that 
each  nation  has  its  own  standards  of  morality,  as  well 


X  PREFACE 

as  its  own  rule  of  commercial  ethics,  possessing  a  form 
of  wit  and  culture,  and  general  estimate  of  life,  as  dis- 
tinct as  is  its  language  and  its  history.  It  is  impossible 
to  begin  to  understand  foreign  people  until  we  have 
made  some  progress  in  learning  their  historical  back- 
ground, the  things  that  seem  good  in  their  eyes,  their 
language  and  their  modes  of  doing  business. 

In  our  trade  relations,  also,  with  the  South  Amer- 
icans we  have  been  too  inclined  at  times  simply  to  sell 
goods  to  them,  and  as  one  South  American  put  it,  "to 
forget  that  we  must  sell  goods  and  service  together" 
if  permanent  trade  is  to  be  maintained.  After  the 
war  we  shall  have  the  greatest  opportunity  ever 
afforded  us  to  prove  our  ability  to  compete  with  Euro- 
peans in  South  American  trade.  Unless  we  are  most 
alert  and  reveal,  not  only  by  the  price  and  quality  of 
our  goods,  but  also  by  our  mental  attitude  to  Latin 
Americans  that  we  really  wish  to  do  business  with  them, 
our  capable  European  competitors  will  take  away  from 
us  even  that  which  we  have  gained.  Undoubtedly  the 
chief  and  underlying  commercial  needs  at  present  are 
American  banking  facilities  in  South  America  and  bet- 
ter transportation  arrangements  between  the  two  sec- 
tions. However,  unless  we  as  a  people  can  show 
ourselves  capable  of  securing  the  point  of  view,  so 
different  from  our  own,  of  our  southern  neighbours, 
we  shall  find  advance  difficult. 

A  prominent  Brazilian,  writing  recently  concerning 
what  he  considered  the  fundamental  necessity  for  se- 
curing better  relationships  of  all  kinds  between  North 
and  South  America,  said: 

"You  people  of  the  North  must  learn  to  trust  Latin 


PREFACE  xi 

Americans  as  you  trust  and  have  confidence  in  your 
brother  Americans.  You  must  learn  to  realise  that 
we  are  worthy  of  your  confidence,  and  that  in  point  of 
honour  we  do  not  take  second  place  to  any  other  na- 
tion." 

In  the  following  pages  I  have  tried  to  point  out  some 
of  the  leading  characteristics  and  tendencies  of  the 
South  Americans  who  represent  many  diverse  types 
and  sections.  The  German  "penetration"  has  been 
studied;  and  the  South  American  institutions  and  in- 
dustries. I  have  tried  to  give  some  inkling  of  the 
national  background  and  the  natural  resources,  of  the 
methods  of  doing  business,  the  place  that  Americans 
and  other  foreigners  have  gained  in  trade,  as  well  as 
indicating  certain  results  of  study  and  contact  with 
many  representatives  of  the  Southern  Republics  con- 
cerning present  day  requirements. 

Clayton  Sedgwick  Cooper. 
New  York  City. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    GETTING  ACQUAINTED 19 

II    THE  ORIENTAL  SOUTH  AMERICAN 3 1 

III  THE  GERMANS  IN  LATIN  AMERICA 47 

IV  BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  IN  PANAMA      ....  72 

V    TWO    MOUNTAIN    REPUBLICS — THE    ECUADORIANS 

AND  BOLIVIANS 87 

VI    THE  PERUVIANS 106 

VII    NATURAL  RESOURCES  OF  PERU 117 

VIII    THE  INDIAN  OF  PERU 1 24 

IX    CUZCO  AND  THE  INCAS  OF  TO-DAY I35 

X    LAWS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  ANCIENT  INCAS    .        .  1 52 

XI    CHILEAN  MEN 164 

XII    SANTIAGO,  THE  CITY  OF  ARISTOCRACY          .        .        .  1 78 

XIII  BUSINESS  OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST     .  l88 

XIV  PIONEERS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRADE         .        .        .  208 
XV   THE  ARGENTINES 227 

XVI    BUENOS  AIRES — THE  CITY  DE  LUXF       ....  248 

XVII    THE  SOUTH  AMERICAN  COWBOY 261 

XVIII    URUGUAY  AND  THE  URUGUAYANS 269 

XIX    THE  MEN  OF  BRAZIL 284 

XX    BRAZIL — AS  BRAZILIANS  SEE  HER 298 

XXI    AUTOMOBILING  IN  BRAZIL     .        .        .        .        .        .        .  3 12 

xiii 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXII  THE  SEA  THAT  GUARDS  RIO 323 

XXIII  SOUTH  AMERICAN  WOMEN 328 

XXIV  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  SOUTH  AMERICANS         .        .  34I 
XXV  SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL 366 

XXVI  THE  AMERICAN  CONSUL  AND  HIS  WORK       .       .        .  395 

XXVII  WINNING  SOUTH  AMERICANS 402 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

sunset  at  Rio  harbour Frontispiece 

PAGE 

THE  BULL  RING,  LIMA 38 

THE  JOCKEY  CLUB   STAND,   HIPPODROME,   BUENOS  AIRES  38 

"LAS  BALSAS"  REED  BOATS,  LAKE  TITICACA    ....  90 

MASKED  DANCERS  AT  CARMEN  ALTO  DURING  CARNIVAL   .  I38 

RUINS,  PALACE  OF  THE  INCA,  CUZCO I38 

A  PATAGONIAN  TRIBE  OF  SOUTHERN  CHILE       .        .        .        .  170 

ARICA,  THE  TERMINUS  OF  THE  NEW  CHILEAN  RAILROAD 

FROM  LA  PAZ I92 

PRIMITIVE  PLOUGHING  IN  CHILE 1 92 

ALVAER  AVENUE  IN  BUENOS  AIRES 232 

THE  GAUCHO  AS  A  WANDERING  MINSTREL         ....  264 

A  GROUP  OF  GAUCHOS  AT  A  COUNTRY  ESTATE         .       .       .  264 

AVENUE  OF  ROYAL  PALMS  IN  RIO  DE  JANEIRO         .        .        .  29O 

AVENIDA  RIO  BRANCO — RIO  JANEIRO 3  02 

THE  BAY  OF  BOTAFOGA  AND  THE  CITY  OF  RIO  DE  JANEIRO 

BY  NIGHT 302 

CATHEDRAL  FROM  PLAZA,  LIMA 35O 

INTERIOR  OF  CATHEDRAL,  AREQUIPA 350 

A  CLASS  IN  AN  AMERICAN  GIRLS*  SCHOOL  IN  SANTIAGO     .  372 

THE  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE,  SAO  PAULO  .       .       .        -372 

xv 


m 


m 


• 


UNDERSTANDING 
SOUTH    AMERICA 

CHAPTER  I 

GETTING  ACQUAINTED 

The  happiness  of  the  world,  as  well  as  its  peace,  will  be  pros 
moted  when  men  learn  to  look  at  world  problems  not  from 
the  viewpoint  of  their  own  nation  alone,  but  from  that  of  other 
nations  as  well. — Dr.  Nicholas  Murray  Butler. 

IT  has  been  said  with  good  reason  that  the  portrait 
that  one  nation  paints  of  another  is  likely  to  appear 
a  libel  or  a  caricature  to  the  sitter.  This  applies 
with  peculiar  force  to  the  two  Americas. 

Neither  of  the  Americas  have  had  a  square  deal,  the 
one  from  the  other.  Far  too  much  ignorance,  ridicule 
and  national  prejudice  have  been  mixed  with  the  col- 
ours to  get  a  clear  picture. 

We  have  never  really  known  each  other.  I  once 
knew  an  Englishman  who  took  a  peculiar  and  inveter- 
ate dislike  to  another  Englishman.  A  friend  of  the 
two  men  contrived  to  bring  them  to  the  same  club  in 
London  one  day,  and  taking  my  English  acquaintance 

aside  said,  "I  want  you  to  meet  Mr.  whom  you 

dislike." 

19    , 


20        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA! 

My  friend  replied,  "I  absolutely  refuse  to  know 
him, — Why,  how  do  you  suppose  I  can  hate  him  if  I 
get  acquainted  with  him?" 

It  has  struck  me  as  significant  that  the  North  Amer- 
icans who  really  know  best  our  neighbours  to  the  south 
usually  like  them.  They  are  often  enthusiastic  in 
their  praise  of  the  Latin  Americans,  and  even  when 
they  point  out  their  faults,  it  is  with  something  of  the 
attitude  with  which  your  real  friend  knows  all  about 
you  and  still  loves  you. 

During  a  recent  year  south  of  the  Rio  Grande,  I 
noted  repeatedly  a  similar  tendency  among  the  South 
Americans  who  had  visited  or  lived  for  some  time  in 
the  United  States.  I  have  never  heard  the  natural- 
born  "boomer"  of  our  great  West  rhapsodise  over  his 
particular  state  as  some  Latin  Americans  now  glorify 
everything  made  in  North  America.  I  even  met  a 
Chilean  of  an  old  family  in  Valparaiso,  who  on  re- 
turning recently  from  New  York,  brought  along  an 
entire  steam-heating  plant  which  he  installed  in  his 
house  I  This  fact  impressed  me  as  most  promising 
toward  better  inter-American  relationships,  since  this 
was  the  only  house  on  the  whole  West  Coast  in  which 
I  was  able  to  keep  warm  enough  to  really  enjoy  life. 
The  gentle  reader  may  think  this  is  a  joke.  It  is  not. 
I  never  was  so  continuously  cold  in  all  my  life  as  dur- 
ing the  months  spent  travelling  about  this  particular  sec- 
tion during  the  Peruvian  and  Chilean  winter.  Even 
though  it  has  taken  several  centuries,  more  or  less,  for 
one  open  minded  and  sensible  Chilean  to  have  been 
raised  up  by  a  divine  Providence  to  visit  the  United 
States  and  get  his  hands  and  feet  warm,  and  determine 


GETTING  ACQUAINTED  21 

to  pass  on  this  comfortable  sensation  to  generations 
yet  unborn,  no  one  has  the  right  to  lose  confidence  in 
the  influence  of  international  contact. 

Yet,  important  as  it  may  seen  to  be  to  the  man  from 
the  "States"  that  he  duplicate  as  far  as  possible  the 
living  conditions  he  left  behind  him  in  a  steam-heated 
apartment,  it's  not  the  house,  the  furnace,  the  stucco 
work  on  the  front  of  the  building,  or  the  existence  or 
absence  of  the  patio  in  the  middle  of  it,  that  is  primal 
and  vital  to  mutual  understanding.  It  is  the  man  who 
lives  in  the  house  that  counts.  What  he  is  and  why  he 
is  it,  what  he  thinks  and  why,  what  are  his  ideals  and 
ambitions  and  how  he  is  forging  toward  them  in  his 
particular  environment — these  are  of  first  moment — 
these  were  the  things  I  tried  to  find  out  in  my  visit 
to  the  South  Americans. 

This  kind  of  knowledge  is  harder  to  get  than  statis- 
tics of  birth  rates  and  trade  balances;  the  men  who 
have  succeeded  best  in  doing  business  with  Latin  Amer- 
icans tell  me  that  these  are  also  more  important  for 
any  permanent  progress  in  commercial  dealing.  To 
study  the  characteristics  of  the  kind  of  men  who  inhabit 
South  America  is  also  of  quite  as  much  consequence 
as  to  study  the  country  itself.  In  fact  a  traveller  who 
may  be  able  to  tell  you  the  length  of  every  river,  the 
height  of  every  mountain  and  every  climatic  and  geo- 
graphical detail  from  Para  to  Patagonia,  may  still  be 
as  ignorant  of  the  inner  motives  and  springs  of  action 
of  this  diverse  people,  as  he  was  before  he  set  his  foot 
on  South  American  soil. 

And  this  for  the  simple  reason  that,  through  the 
working  of  forces  over  which  humanity  seems  to  have 


22        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

slight  control,  the  Latin  Americans  do  not  seem  to 
belong  logically  to  the  country  in  which  fate  has  placed 
them.  In  Japan  the  land  and  the  sky  and  water  seem 
to  be  at  once  the  suitable  setting  for  a  race  of  men 
such  as  we  find  there.  The  country  appears  to  be 
made  to  order  for  them.  The  one  is  reflected  in  the 
other;  if  you  found  any  people  about  Miajima,  Nikko, 
or  anywhere  in  the  long  graceful  shadows  of  Fuji  who 
were  not  artistic,  romantic,  beauty-loving  and  patriotic, 
you  would  feel  the  anachronism. 

How  unlike  is  the  condition  in  Latin  America ! 
Here  are  seventy  millions  or  more  of  people,  in  whose 
veins  flows  the  original  mixed  blood  of  Latin  and 
Moor,  naturally  a  race  of  thinkers,  poets,  politicians, 
theorists,  inapt  for  scientific  or  agricultural  or  indus- 
trial pursuits,  set  down  in  a  vast  unconquered  continent 
of  physical  opportunity.  With  an  early  settlement 
made  by  a  promiscuous  lot  of  adventurers,  freebooters, 
and  spendthrifts,  who  never  did  any  work  at  home 
and  came  to  South  America  to  loot  and  to  kill,  carry- 
ing away  everything  they  could  transport,  these  young 
republics  had  no  inheritance  of  colonisation  or  self 
government  worth  mentioning.  Yet  they  were  called 
upon  suddenly  to  control  and  govern  unfused  and 
diverse  populations,  whose  inheritance  had  been 
bureaucracy,  office-seeking  and  living  as  easily  as  pos- 
sible on  favouritism. 

With  huge  mountains  to  tunnel  and  thick  forests  and 
jungles  to  subdue,  with  arid  lands  to  irrigate,  and  pesti- 
lential and  fever-stricken  tropical  areas  to  cleanse,  with 
a  country  of  natural  resources  second  to  none  on  the 
planet,  requiring  miners,  and  manufacturers,  foresters 


GETTING  ACQUAINTED  23 

and  farmers  of  the  first  grade,  here  is  a  fateful  anomaly 
of  residents  who  inherited  the  strong  feeling  that 
manual  work  was  for  slaves  and  coolies  only,  that  a 
polite  profession,  like  law  and  literature  or  politics, 
was  the  only  vocation  for  a  gentleman.  These  people 
regarded  commerce,  industry  and  agriculture,  while 
necessary,  as  undesirable  as  they  were  distasteful  to 
temperaments,  in  which  the  practical,  the  utilitarian, 
and  the  scientific  had  received  little  or  no  attention  for 
generations. 

It  is  a  wonder  that  with  a  country,  seemingly  as  un- 
fitted as  it  well  could  be,  in  its  needs,  to  the  traits  and 
faculties  of  the  people  who  were  responsible  for  its 
subjugation  and  development,  the  Latin  Americans 
have  been  able  as  quickly  as  they  have,  to  make  such 
beginning  of  governments  and  institutions. 

It  is  fair  to  state  that  among  the  means  which  have 
been  pre-eminent  in  acquainting  the  two  Americas  with 
each  other  has  been  the  Pan  American  Union  in  Wash- 
ington. It  has  not  been  an  easy  task  nor  has  it  been 
altogether  a  popular  one  that  Mr.  John  Barrett  and 
his  excellent  staff  have  had  before  them  in  their  en- 
deavour to  bring  together  in  knowledge  and  co-opera- 
tion the  United  States  and  Latin  America;  yet  since 
the  first  Pan-American,  conference  held  in  Washington 
in  the  winter  of  1889  and  1890,  when  Secretary  of 
State  James  G.  Blaine  presided,  there  has  been  a  con- 
tinuous and  ever  enlarging  service  rendered  by  this 
Union  having  the  comprehensive  purpose  of  "develop- 
ing commerce,  intercourse,  friendship  and  peace,', 
among  the  republics  of  the  Western  Continent. 

The  Pan  American  Union  with  its  official  organisa- 


24        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tion  of  twenty-one  American  republics,  maintained  by 
their  joint  quotas  based  upon  population,  is  controlled 
by  a  Governing  Board  which  is  composed  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  who  is  Chair- 
man ex-officio,  and  the  Diplomatic  Representatives  of 
Latin  America  in  Washington.  The  Union  is  ad- 
ministered by  a  Director  General  elected  by  that  Board, 
who,  in  turn,  is  assisted  by  a  staff  of  experts  in  Pan 
American  matters  and  subjects.  The  value  of  the 
service  which  it  renders  is  signified  by  the  fact  that 
the  daily  list  of  visitors  averages  between  500  and 
1000,  and  its  yearly  correspondence  of  letters,  period- 
icals and  circulars  reaches  the  total  of  100,000  to 
500,000.  All  those  desiring  information  and  seeking 
a  better  acquaintance  with  these  people  would  do  well 
to  keep  in  mind  this  Union  which  is  devoted  so  thor- 
oughly to  the  cause  of  more  perfect  relationship  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  the  States  in  the  Southern 
hemisphere. 

When  we  inquire  as  to  the  kind  of  people  South 
Americans  are,  their  success  at  making  nations,  their 
place  in  trade  and  commerce,  and  their  future,  we  are 
brought  to  consider  the  racial  history  and  present  re- 
lationships of  varied  nationalities  in  South  America. 
No  doubt  in  the  southern  half  of  this  continent  there 
is  being  attempted  at  present  a  melting  together  of 
races  such  as  is  not  found  in  any  other  part  of  the 
civilised  world.  At  the  bottom  of  this  melting  pot  we 
find  the  pure  Indian,  constituting  approximately  nine 
millions  of  the  forty-five  millions  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  South  American  republics.  In  Brazil  and  espe- 
cially  in   the   republics  bordering  on   the    Caribbean 


GETTING  ACQUAINTED  25 

Sea,  the  negro  may  be  placed  also  alongside  the  Indian. 
These  are  the  workers  of  the  soil,  the  diggers  in  the 
mines,  the  "hewers  of  wood  and  the  drawers  of  water" 
in  this  vast  southern  continental  area. 

While  there  are  exceptions,  of  course,  it  may  be 
said  in  general  that  these  races  in  the  substratum  of 
society,  by  reason  of  lack  of  education  or  personal 
initiative,  are  without  a  voice  either  in  the  making  of 
laws  or  the  formation  of  opinion.  To  be  sure,  civil 
rights  are  theirs,  on  the  statute  books,  but  they  have 
not  as  yet  claimed  their  rights.  In  some  cases  tropic- 
ally indolent,  in  others  crushed  in  spirit  by  the  domina- 
tion and  practices  of  their  conquerors,  the  Indian  and 
Negro  of  these  regions  may  be  eliminated  from  the 
body  of  intelligent  nationmakers.  Economically  they 
are  at  present  indispensable,  in  countries  like  Peru,  Bo- 
livia and  Brazil,  but  education  and  training  in  respon- 
sible citizenship  has  not  reached  them  as  yet  to  any 
appreciable  extent.  In  certain  places  the  Indians  are 
less  advanced  than  in  the  days  before  the  Spanish  con- 
querors wrested  from  their  hands  the  great  Andean 
plateaus.  Like  the  populations  generally,  their  re- 
ligion is  nominally  Catholic,  but  their  forms  of  worship 
are  tinged  highly  with  the  magic  and  the  superstitious 
rites  and  ceremonies  handed  down  from  their  distant 
ancestry. 

The  next  layer  in  the  melting  pot  is  that  of  the 
mestizo,  or  the  mixture  of  European  blood  with  the 
South  American  Indian  or  the  African  Negro.  This 
mixture  is  of  many  degrees,  and  it  may  be  roughly 
estimated  as  composing  thirteen  or  fourteen  millions  of 
the  total  population,  though  it  is  of  all  things  difficult 


26        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

here  in  these  countries  to  say  precisely  where  the  de- 
marcation lies  between  the  mestizo  and  the  pure  white 
populations.  In  this  middle  layer  of  racial  society, 
much  of  the  national  evolution  and  racial  characteristic 
of  the  inhabitants  is  now  in  process  of  development. 
It  is  here  that  the  old  Spanish  and  Portuguese  strain 
of  blood,  mingled  with  the  Aborigines  particularly,  is 
revealing  the  distinctive  traits  of  a  new  race  evolving 
under  peculiar  historical,  racial  and  geographical  con- 
ditions. This  class  of  population  cannot  be  considered 
in  the  category  of  the  half-caste  or  Eurasian  of  the 
East,  for  many  of  the  enlightened  and  cultured  leaders 
of  South  America  point  with  pride  to  the  racial  link 
binding  them  to  Indian  ancestry. 

One  of  the  most  honoured  of  Brazilian  judges  said 
to  me  with  no  evidence  of  aught  but  pride,  "I  am  a 
caboclo!"  This  tincture  of  Indian  blood  flowing  in 
his  veins  is  held  by  him  as  by  many  another,  a  sign  of 
strength  and  not  of  weakness. 

The  upper  layer  of  white  racial  stock  may  be  said 
to  comprise  about  fifteen  millions  of  the  inhabitants, 
though  if  we  estimate  the  racial  conditions  by  separate 
countries,  the  results  would  be  quite  different.  Uru- 
guay and  Argentina,  for  example,  show  almost  an 
entire  white  population  save  for  the  Argentine  Indians 
in  the  North  of  the  big  republic,  while  the  sturdy 
Araucanian  Indians  of  Chile  have  ceased  largely  from 
being  a  factor  in  the  racial  intermixture  of  the  country, 
being  isolated  somewhat  as  were  the  Indians  of  the 
United  States.  In  Bolivia  and  Peru,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  are  at  least  three  and  a  half  million  Indians, 


GETTING  ACQUAINTED  27 

and  one  and  a  half  million  of  mestizos,  out  of  a  popu- 
lation of  six  millions. 

Paraguay  is  even  more  an  Indian  republic.  The 
Guarani  Indian  language  is  the  most  common  tongue, 
and  throughout  the  long  stretch  of  the  Andean  table- 
lands and  lofty  altitudes  from  Ecuador  to  Chile  and 
Argentina,  it  is  stated  that  less  than  one  fifth  of  the 
Indians  are  able  to  speak  Spanish,  but  retain  their 
mother  tongues  of  Quichua,  Aymara  or  local  Indian 
dialects. 

It  is  only  as  one  holds  in  mind  these  racial  facts 
that  any  worth  while  judgments  and  analysis  of  South 
Americans  can  be  attempted.  It  is  apparent  that  a 
civilisation  that  possesses  at  the  top  peoples  of  the 
highest  culture  and  standards  of  life,  bearing  compari- 
son with  those  of  any  other  part  of  the  world,  and  at 
the  bottom  so  large  a  population  still  sunk  in  ignorance, 
and  in  some  cases  for  considerable  areas  in  abject 
savagery,  is  difficult  of  generalisation.  There  is  far 
more  dissimilarity  between  populations  in  various 
South  American  republics,  and  in  some  cases  between 
the  peoples  of  the  same  republic^  than  is  found  between 
many  European  countries;  there  is  far  more  of  differ- 
ence than  between  the  most  diverse  of  the  population 
of  North  American  states. 

Yet  there  are  several  lines  of  characteristic  running 
through  all  of  the  social  and  political  life  of  these 
southern  republics,  marking  off  the  section  as  a  whole 
from  other  parts  of  the  world. 

One  of  these  is  the  virtual  absence  of  prejudice 
against  colour.  The  distinctions  among  South  Ameri- 
cans are  those  of  rank  or  class,  not  of  the  colour  of  a 


28        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

man's  skin.  A  South  American  of  the  upper  classes 
who  might  marry  an  Indian,  would  probably  lose 
something  of  his  standing,  very  much  as  an  American 
might  by  intermarrying,  making  a  mesalliance,  with  his 
serving  woman.  But  his  case  in  no  wise  would  be 
aggravated  by  reason  of  marrying  a  woman  of  colour 
other  than  his  own.  South  America  is  particularly 
free  of  racial  antagonisms  because  of  the  colour  ques- 
tion. Indians  and  negroes  are  treated  differently  so- 
cially than  almost  anywhere  else  in  the  civilised  world 
to-day.  The  man  of  half  blood,  or  even  the  full- 
blooded  Indian  or  the  Negro,  is  given  rank  according 
to  his  accomplishments  or  degree  of  intelligence.  I 
have  met  negroes  in  the  Academy  of  Letters  among 
the  Forty  Immortals  of  Brazil,  and  I  have  seen  in  many 
other  countries  men  in  public  life  highly  honoured  and 
revered,  whose  facial  lines  bore  the  distinct  marks  of 
their  Indian  ancestry.  Another  sign  of  the  absence  of 
colour  distinctions,  as  we  feel  these  here  in  the  north, 
is  the  tendency  in  South  America  to  count  all  persons 
usually  denominated  as  mestizos  among  the  white 
populations. 

It  is  furthermore  a  mixed  Latin  and  Oriental  culture, 
one  finds  in  these  regions.  The  attitude  of  the  Latin 
American  to  the  saving  or  use  of  time,  for  example, 
could  be  amply  illustrated  by  any  observant  business 
traveller  or  visitor  in  these  southern  republics.  We 
have  met  many  Latin  Americans  who  have  reminded 
us  of  Stevenson's  wish  that  heaven  would  be  a  place 
where  he  would  not  have  to  keep  any  hours.  The 
North  American's  time-saving  habits  are  a  puzzle  to 
many  people  residing  in  Eastern  or  South  American 


GETTING  ACQUAINTED  29 

latitudes.  The  President  of  a  certain  South  American 
republic  visited  a  large  industrial  plant  not  long  ago, 
which  enterprise  was  being  carried  on  by  an  American. 
During  his  inspection  he  had  reason  to  call  attention 
to  a  matter  needing  attention  in  order  to  comply  with 
the  country's  laws. 

The  industrial  manager  said  he  would  attend  to  the 
business,  but  sometime  afterwards  the  President  called 
his  secretary  and  inquired  as  to  whether  the  required 
changes  had  been  made.     The  secretary  responded: 

"Surely  they  have  been  made.    Did  not  Senor say 

he  would  do  it?  He  is  an  American,  and  Americans 
always  tell  the  truth." 

The  President  was  thoughtful  for  a  few  minutes,  and 
then  said,  half  to  himself,  "I  have  it  now.  The 
Americans  tell  the  truth  in  order  to  save  time.  If  you 
don't  tell  the  truth  you  always,  sooner  or  later,  lose  a 
lot  of  time  in  explaining  things.  Americans  like  most 
to  save  time,  therefore  they  tell  the  truth." 

One  soon  learns  that,  among  Latin  Americans,  the 
more  leisurely  and  courteously  one  does  a  thing  the 
sooner  and  more  pleasantly  will  it  be  accomplished. 
Save  in  the  largest  business  centres,  there  is  an  absence 
of  strain  and  stress  such  as  characterise  life  in  northern 
latitudes.  Pleasure,  friendship,  family-life,  and  for- 
malities bulk  larger.  Business  is  more  effective  among 
the  South  Americans  than  we  are  led  at  times  to  sup- 
pose, but  one  does  not  receive  the  impression  that  it 
occupies  the  front  of  the  stage,  so  politely  and  gra- 
ciously is  it  carried  along.  More  than  one  northern 
trader  who  has  tasted  the  free  and  happy  hospitality 
of  a  South  American  home,  or  has  learned  here  that 


SO        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

quality  of  life  and  accomplishments  as  well  as  quantity, 
counts  in  the  long  run,  has  returned  home  with  some 
regret  to  his  usual  strenuous  routine, 

"That  vain  low  strife 
Which  makes  men  mad,  the  tug  for  wealth  and  power, 
The  passion  and  the  cares  that  wither  life 
And  waste  its  little  hour." 

The  South  American,  with  his  quieter  and  more 
leisured  existence,  doubtless  has  turned  his  attention 
too  completely  to  politics,  literature  and  the  arts  in 
the  environment  of  culture,  copying  the  flowering  of 
Old  World  foundations,  forgetting  at  times  that  the 
practical  bases  of  his  agricultural  and  industrial  empire 
are  not  yet  securely  laid.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  in  the 
present  widespread  awakening  to  commercial  and 
economic  matters,  he  will  not  inherit  the  slavery  along 
with  the  efficiency. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  ORIENTAL  SOUTH  AMERICAN 

We  have  been  misjudged,  we  have  been  misrepresented  at  all 
times.  And  all  because  our  critics  have  failed  to  look  into  our 
early  histories  and  ascertain  the  why  and  wherefore  of  the 
present  state  of  affairs. — Senor  Don  Frederico  A.  Pezet, 
former  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to 
the  United  States  from  Peru. 

SOUTH  AMERICANS  are  at  heart  as  chivalrous 
as  the  Japanese.  Their  patriarchal  customs, 
home  life,  gift-making,  and  treatment  of  the  elder 
members  of  the  family,  remind  one  of  China.  Their 
love  of  colour  and  romance  is  quite  East  Indian,  while 
the  semi-seclusion  of  women,  found  especially  on  the 
West  Coast,  is  evidently  a  vestige  of  those  customs 
with  which  a  Moorish  culture  marked  the  Iberian 
Peninsula  for  several  centuries. 

The  climate  of  many  portions  of  the  southern 
Western  hemisphere  also  suggests  the  East.  One  finds 
a  pageantry  of  beauty  and  radiant  warmth  of  sun  and 
air  germane  only  to  tropical  skies.  The  balmy  nights 
beneath  the  Southern  Cross  may  not  be  more  wonder- 
ful than  those  under  the  more  sombre,  elevated 
northern  skies;  yet  they  belong  to  one's  feeling  more 
than  to  one's  reason.  To  many  a  nature  and  tempera- 
ment, these  lands  of  sunshine  and  palms  speak  directly 

31 


32        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

to  the  heart  and  to  the  emotions;  they  associate  them- 
selves easily  with  subtle  and  remote  things — age,  mys- 
tery, imagination,  and  all  things  antipodal  to  the  push- 
ing practical  life  of  the  North  and  West.  The  tropics 
are  for  dreams  as  other  places  are  for  work. 

The  mental  endowments  of  the  Latin  Americans  are 
also  more  in  line  with  Oriental  than  with  Occidental 
characteristics. 

The  South  American  is  theoretical  rather  than  prac- 
tical. In  his  indirect  and  round-about  approach  to  a 
subject,  he  is  like  the  Oriental,  as  he  is  unlike  the  man 
of  the  Occident.  He  seeks  the  prettiest  road  rather 
than  the  shortest  one  to  a  given  point.  He  loves  dis- 
play, and  has  a  penchant  for  the  literary  and  artistic, 
rather  than  the  industrial  and  scientific.  There  is  an 
ingrained  love  of  politics  throughout  South  America, 
and  the  men  are  talented  in  oratorical  and  rhetorical 
matters,  while  in  literature  and  languages  they  easily 
surpass  in  their  aptitudes  the  men  of  the  business  civili- 
sation of  the  United  States. 

As  devotees  to  form  and  to  the  courteous  at  all  times, 
the  South  American  is  proverbially  correct.  I  knew 
of  a  large  manufacturing  house  in  the  "States"  which 
lost  recently  a  very  large  order  for  goods  because  the 
agent,  sent  down  to  deliver  the  order,  forgot  the  usual 
politeness  of  taking  off  his  hat  when  he  entered  the 
Latin  American's  office,  calling  the  dignified  Latin 
American,  "Old  Man,"  and  whacking  him  familiarly 
on  the  back,  with  true  Middle  West  fervour. 

The  Oriental  trait  of  saying  the  pleasant  thing  is 
very  common.  The  South  American  believes  and 
works  on  the  principle  stated  by  St.  Francis  de  Sales : 


THE  ORIENTAL  SOUTH  AMERICAN        33 

"It  is  better  to  hold  back  a  truth  than  to  speak  it 
ungraciously."  It  is  a  land  of  compliment,  ofttimes 
of  polite  flattery,  and  handshaking,  embracing,  and 
inquiries  as  to  your  friend's  health,  family,  and  social 
matters  are  seldom  forgotten  as  preludes  to  the  most 
important  and  pressing  business.  In  dealing  with  any 
one  south  of  the  Rio  Grande,  it  is  well  to  recall  the  old 
motto  of  William  of  Wyckham — "Manners  maketh 
the  man." 

No  East  Indian  or  Egyptian  is  more  eager  to  secure 
a  position  with  the  Government  than  is  the  South  Amer- 
ican. The  predominance  of  law  schools  over  any 
other  branch  of  training  reveals  the  tendency.  Poli- 
tics is  a  gentleman's  vocation,  and  officialdom  holds  a 
place  of  eminence  that  North  Americans  have  never 
given  it.  It  is  natural  that  favouritism  should  follow 
in  the  train  of  such  inclinations.  One  of  the  foes  to 
progress  in  South  America  to-day  is  the  overloading 
of  Government  positions,  and  the  abnormal  place  that 
friendship  holds  as  a  key  to  securing  office,  regardless 
often  of  suitable  personal  qualifications.  When  it 
comes  to  a  knowledge  of  law,  especially  a  thorough 
acquaintance  with  historical  background  and  the  theory 
of  politics,  the  Latin  American  is  noteworthy.  Here, 
as  in  most  other  places,  there  is  need  of  men  of  unselfish 
devotion  to  execute  the  laws,  and  even  a  greater  need 
of  unification  and  co-ordination  of  political  measures, 
as  between  states  and  the  federal  governments.  In 
Brazil,  for  instance,  where  the  export  duties  vary 
widely  in  different  states,  and  in  Peru,  where  taxation 
of  foreign  business  is  inclined  to  follow  somewhat 
capriciously  the  prosperity  of  the  business,  modern  sta- 


34        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

bility  of  trade  is  handicapped  and  frequently  unsettled. 

Apart  from  the  certain  influences  of  Oriental  civili- 
sation that  South  America  has  inherited  from  Spain 
and  Portugal,  where  the  traces  of  the  Moslem  and  the 
Moor  are  more  generally  evident  than  in  any  other 
part  of  Europe,  there  are  scientists  who  trace  the  early 
settlements  of  this  country  by  way  of  the  Behring 
Straits  from  Far  Eastern  sources.  There  is  historical 
evidence  to  prove  a  racial  stream,  with  distinct  Mon- 
golian and  Malay  features,  from  Eastern  Asia,  flowing 
down  the  Pacific  coast  and  finding  a  habitat  in  the  lofty 
Andean  sections.  The  Cuzco  Indians,  as  well  as  the 
native  tribes  found  to-day  in  Brazil  and  Paraguay,  re- 
mind the  traveller  of  the  facial  types  and  habits  of  life 
found  in  many  islands  peopled  by  Malaysians,  while 
one  takes  photographs  of  life,  among  the  lower  orders 
particularly,  that  might  be  duplicated  in  many  parts  of 
China  or  southern  Asia. 

If  one  is  looking  for  Orientalism  in  South  America, 
he  will  find  it  in  the  music  in  rural  districts  that  bears 
the  minor  strain  and  rhythmic  beat  of  the  East.  Bur- 
dens are  carried  on  the  head,  as  in  many  equatorial 
regions.  The  mantas  of  the  women,  the  sandalled  feet 
of  the  working  classes,  the  highly  coloured  costumes  of 
tropical  sections  in  Brazil  and  Bolivia,  the  presence 
everywhere  of  much  jewelry,  the  use  of  the  mud  hut, 
and  primitive  carts  and  bullocks,  the  farming  utensils, 
the  water-jars,  the  absence  of  privacy  in  the  homes,  and 
the  ready  volubility  of  all  classes,  are  all  indicative  of 
inheritance  and  models  absent  from  the  northern  parts 
of  the  Western  continent. 

In  Bogota,  Harry  Franck  tells  of  the  customs  of  per- 


THE  ORIENTAL  SOUTH  AMERICAN        35 

ambulating  students,  studying  as  they  walk  about,  as 
do  the  students  in  Ceylon  and  certain  parts  of  India : 

"We  had  only  to  glance  out  of  our  window/'  says 
Mr.  Franck,  "to  find  .  .  .  the  plaza  below  always 
alive  with  students  from  the  local  institution  of  higher 
learning  for  males,  marching  slowly  back  and  forth 
conning  the  day's  lessons.  The  fireless  houses  are  cold 
and  dungeon-like,  particularly  in  the  morning,  and  the 
city  long  ago  formed  the  habit  of  studying  afoot.  The 
racial  dislike  of  solitude  and  the  eagerness  to  be  seen 
and  recognised  by  their  fellows  as  devotees  of  learn- 
ing may  also  have  some  part  in  a  practice  that  many 
a  Bogotano  continues  through  life.  It  is  a  common- 
place to  pass  in  almost  any  street  men  even  past  mid- 
dle age  strolling  along  with  an  open  book  in  one  hand 
and  the  inevitable  silver-headed  cane  in  the  other." 

The  South  American  is  as  easily  a  poet,  a  musician,  a 
painter,  a  politician,  or  some  kind  of  literary  person, 
as  the  North  American  becomes  without  effort  a  me- 
chanical expert  or  a  business  man.  The  type  of  mind 
in  the  one  case  is  spiritual  and  literary;  in  the  other 
it  is  practical  and  scientific.  The  qualities  are  com- 
plementary and  in  their  union  there  resides  one  of  the 
richest  possibilities  of  pan-Americanism. 

Definite  examples  of  Orientalism  are  strewn  thickly 
along  the  path  of  the  traveller  through  these  southern 
republics. 

Utility  disappears  before  ornateness  in  many  cases. 
I  have  visited  high  officials  in  certain  parts  of  western 
South  America,  in  homes  that  were  scarcely  surpassed 
in  gorgeous  appointments  by  palaces  in  Europe,  and 
the  rooms  were  so  cold  that  everybody  perforce  had 
to  wear  their  overcoats  to  keep  from  freezing. 


$6        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

It  is  proverbial  that  no  business  or  anything  else 
can  be  done  in  these  parts  without  buildings  that  are 
as  big  and  dignified  as  they  are  pretentious.  I  visited 
a  missionary  school  that  the  president  said  was  doomed 
until  they  could  secure  a  better  building  and  situation, 
as  the  Latin  American  youth  would  not  under  any 
circumstances  be  caught  either  going  in  or  coming 
out  from  a  structure  so  common-place.  The  houses  of 
business  have  a  palatial  look,  and  a  New  York  sky- 
scraper would  seem  an  irretrievable  blot  on  the  land- 
scape of  a  Latin  American  city,  no  matter  how  con- 
venient or  useful  it  might  be  for  business  purposes. 
Even  small  houses  are  often  covered  on  the  front  with 
stucco  work  and  elaborate  designs,  all  of  which  is  in 
glaring  contrast  to  the  rear  portion  of  the  dwelling, 
that  is  out  of  sight. 

The  South  American  is  as  delicately  thoughtful  and 
careful  about  saying  abrupt  and  disagreeable  things 
as  is  any  Oriental.  No  people  are  more  long  suffering 
in  regard  to  sympathy  with  foreigners  who  murder 
their  Spanish  or  Portuguese.  One  can  make  all  man- 
ner of  mistakes  but  your  polished  Latin  American  will 
never  indicate  by  as  much  as  the  flicker  of  the  eyelash 
that  you  are  not  speaking  in  the  most  perfect  Castilian 
or  Lisbon  phrase. 

A  man  of  my  acquaintance  had  excellent  proof  of  this 
chivalric  Latin  forbearance  when  in  the  attempt  to 
explain  to  a  very  solemn  and  dignified  Peruvian  official 
that  while  in  the  lofty  altitudes  of  the  Andes  he  nearly 
lost  his  mind.  He  intended  to  say — "I  nearly  lost  my 
brains" — His  Spanish  became  a  bit  muddled  and  he 
actually  said— "I  nearly  lost  my  kidneys  in  the  Andes" 


THE  ORIENTAL  SOUTH  AMERICAN        37 

— at  which  the  polite  official  without  a  trace  of  a  smile, 
replied,  "How  sad!" — and  the  traveller  did  not  dis- 
cover his  mistake  in  the  use  of  two  Spanish  words 
sounding  somewhat  alike  until  he  had  left  the  country. 

The  attitude  at  such  mistakes  is  seemingly — "I  am 
sure  that  you  do  not  mean  what  you  say,  but  I  under- 
stand what  you  are  trying  to  tell  me,  and  I  realise  it 
would  be  most  ill-mannered  to  correct  you,  and  thereby 
embarrass  you." 

As  to  the  prodigal  use  of  flowery  speech  to  express 
his  compliments,  no  Easterner  can  surpass  the  Latin 
American.  Here  is  a  description  of  a  marriage  clipped 
from  a  paper  on  the  West  Coast: 

"Nuptials: — The  virtuous  and  angelical  Senorita 
Fulano  has  united  herself  forever  with  the  perfect 
gentleman,  Sefior  Sutano.  In  view  of  the  character- 
istics of  so  sympathetic  a  couple,  there  must  ever  shine 
upon  their  hearth  the  star  of  felicity,  perfumed  by  the 
delicious  ambient  of  the  pure  and  virgin  love  which 
dwells  in  the  innocent  heart  of  the  spiritual  spouse. 
That  the  sun  of  happiness  may  radiate  always  in  the 
blue  heaven  of  this  marriage  is  the  vehement  desire 
of  those  who,  full  of  rejoicing  with  this  felicity,  sign 
themselves — their  friends." 


When  in  certain  colder  and  more  austere  countries 
where  "business  is  business"  and  not  much  else,  and 
where  time  is  at  a  premium,  a  youth  would  say  hur- 
riedly to  a  prospective  employer — "I  want  a  job" — 
in  Chile,  at  least,  this  is  the  manner  in  which  one  of 
the  scions  of  a  good  family  addressed  a  foreign  official, 
in  a  language  not  his  own,  to  be  sure,  but  in  a  style 


38        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

that  was  more  or  less  characteristic  of  his  upbring- 
ing:— 

"Very  respected  Sir: — 

Animated  only  by  the  confidence  which  inspires  the 
well-intentioned,  I  dare  make  your  distinguished  per- 
sonality aware  of  a  desire,  which  if  it  receives  a  fa- 
vourable reception  by  your  kindness  will  compromise 
the  eternal  gratitude  of  the  signer,  and  his  family. 

I  am  nineteen  years  old  and  desire  to  occupy  a  sec- 
ondary position  in  the  offices  of  the  Braden  Copper 
Co.,  it  having  been  impossible  for  me  up  to  the  pres- 
ent, to  find  one  in  the  capital. 

To  have  the  assurance  of  being  accepted  immedi- 
ately I  dare  to  beg  of  you,  if  you  would  be  so  kind, 
that  you  condescend  to  bestow  upon  me  a  letter  of 
presentation  addressed  to  the  Mr.  Manager  of  that 
establishment. 

I  realise  the  great  influence  which  you  would  exer- 
cise ove*r  the  spirit  of  the  Mr.  Manager  on  presenting 
me  to  offer  my  services,  supported  by  the  word  of  one 
of  the  most  worthy  personalities  of  the  North  Amer- 
ican Nation  in  Chile,  and  it  is  for  this  reason,  Sir,  that 
I  have  hesitated  until  making  the  present  reach  your 
hands. 

I  possess  references  from  two  senators  of  the  Re- 
public who  know  and  recommend  me,  as  well  as  cer- 
tificates which  confirm  my  good  conduct  and  my  apti- 
tude for  office  work. 

Awaiting  your  distinguished  opinion  on  my  petition 
and  trusting,  Sir,  that  you  will  pardon  the  trouble,  I 
remain,  Distinguished  Sir, 

Your  attentive  and  sure  servant, 

M.  Perez  Besoin." 

Here  is  the  circumlocution  of  the  Chinese,  and  the 
verbal   honorifics   of  speech   of  the   Japanese.     The 


-•Vi'FvJ 


Ml 


I     T    I 


THE  BULL  RING,  LIMA 


w     .riltiliisiia-!»SB»M»*^5*SS 


THE  JOCKEY  CLUB  STAND,  HIPPODROME,  BUENOS  AIRES 


THE  ORIENTAL  SOUTH  AMERICAN        39 

above  examples  are  not  put  forward  as  absolute  types 
of  Latin  American  journalism,  or  letter-writing.  Both 
are  somewhat  extreme  cases  of  the  tendency  toward  a 
redundant  and  formal  use  of  language  which  is  dis- 
tinctive of  Latin  American  speech  and  writing.  From 
the  northern  point  of  view,  the  men  born  under  warmer 
skies  might  with  profit  learn  the  art  of  compression  and 
directness.  Yet  he  who  went  about  to  change  char- 
acteristic attitudes  or  modes  of  expression  in  either 
South  America  or  the  Orient,  would  find  before  him 
a  task  as  impregnable  as  it  would  be  foolish. 

Our  northern  devotion  to  business  and  breathless 
haste  are  quite  as  comical  to  the  Latin  American. 

In  a  theatre  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  a  play  was  running 
while  I  was  there  in  which  a  young  American  business 
man  in  a  sack  suit  and  straw  hat  was  pictured  as  a 
lover.  He  came  running  in  a  hurried  manner  across 
the  stage  at  frequent  intervals,  shook  hands  with  his 
young  lady-fiance,  exclaiming  hurriedly, — "I  love  you, 
— but  I  must  go  back  to  my  office."  After  which  he 
would  charge  off  the  stage. 

In  Latin  America,  our  brusque  business  etiquette  is 
an  abomination  to  the  leisured,  cultured  folk  of  the 
better  classes.  They  would  speak  of  us  probably  if 
they  were  perfectly  frank,  as  I  once  heard  a  scholarly 
Bengali  of  Calcutta  describe  a  very  practical  English- 
man as  "one  of  the  uncomfortable  works  of  God." 

The  attitude  of  the  South  American  toward  work 
in  general  is  more  in  line  with  that  of  the  pleasure- 
loving  Spaniard,  who  inherited  much  of  his  love  of 
idle  gentlemanhood,  and  his  inaptitude  for  regular  and 
sustained  labour  from  the  racial  stock  that  was  Berbet 


40       UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

and  Oriental  before  it  became  mixed  with  southern 
European  elements.  Work  is  often  a  necessity  among 
the  higher  classes  of  South  Americans ;  it  rarely  seems 
to  be  a  natural  hearty  impulse.  One  misses  the  love 
of  business  for  business'  sake  found  in  the  United 
States. 

A  gorgeous  fiesta  is  more  interesting  to  the  Latin 
American  than  an  agricultural  fair,  and  a  carnival  will 
close  the  business  houses  for  days  at  a  time.  Our 
Latin  neighbours  prefer  Paris  for  a  holiday  to  New 
York  or  Chicago,  since  to  them  the  French  Capital 
represents  more  truly  the  home  of  pleasure,  art  and 
the  charm  of  sans  souci,  attractive  to  the  Latin  tem- 
perament, to  which  utilitarianism  and  steady  grind  of 
work  are  usually  distasteful. 

Yet  the  Spanish  American,  like  the  famous  Toledo 
blades  of  his  ancestors,  possesses  a  high  degree  of  flexi- 
bility. He  can  adapt  himself  to  circumstances  in  a 
wonderful  manner  as  the  ever  enlarging  number  of 
keen  South  American  business  men  bear  witness.  In 
fact,  this  man  of  the  southern  republics  is  keenly  intui- 
tive and  adjustable  even  to  labour  that  is  disagreeable 
to  his  native  bent;  he  is  emotional  and  verbose,  but  he 
is  like  the  Oriental  again,  very  intelligent;  he  loves  his 
friends  and  will  often  sacrifice  what  we  would  call 
"good  business"  for  their  sake,  yet  in  heart  quality  he 
can  give  suggestions  of  value  to  many  other  nations; 
he  is  intensely  chivalrous  and  an  ardent  admirer  of 
women,  and  this  works  usually  toward  the  making  of 
good  homes; — and  the  elimination  of  bachelors;  he 
prefers  gambling  indoors  to  out-of-doors  sports,  and 
this  has  not  helped  his  physique,  but  with  less  strenu- 


THE  ORIENTAL  SOUTH  AMERICAN        41 

ous  working  habits,  and  also  less  money  ambition,  he 
conserves  his  energy  more  truly  than  does  the  North 
American;  and  one  finds  few  sanitariums  for  broken 
nerves  and  enfeebled  bodies  beneath  the  Southern 
Cross. 

In  school  work  the  South  American,  again  Orientally 
minded,  loves  literature  and  drawing  exercises  best, 
and  uses  his  memory  by  preference  before  his  reasoning 
faculties.  While  visiting  schools  in  these  republics,  I 
was  often  reminded  of  a  certain  Chinese  student  whom 
I  once  asked  in  a  visit  to  a  missionary  school  in  Hong- 
kong to  tell  me  the  difference  between  the  teaching  of 
Moses  and  Confucius.  He  hesitated  with  a  character- 
istic Chinese  pause,  then  said :  "Far  be  it  for  me,  a  hum- 
ble student,  to  act  as  critic  between  two  such  great  men 
as  Moses  and  Confucius,  but — "  he  added,  brighten- 
ing up,  "if  you  would  like  to  have  me  repeat  from 
memory  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  I  can  do  it," 
and  he  forthwith  treated  me  with  a  running  catalogue 
of  the  books  from  Genesis  to  Malachi;  he  was  starting 
to  repeat  them  backwards  when  his  teacher  stopped 
him. 

It  is  well  known  that  almost  any  Latin  American 
can  rise  to  his  feet  and  make  a  more  eloquent  speech' 
extemporaneously,  than  could  the  average  North 
American  or  Englishman  after  preparation.  Like  the 
Oriental,  he  likes  to  talk  and  he  is  extremely  good  at 
talking.  It  is  not  in  the  least  unusual  to  find  him 
capable  of  speaking  several  languages  other  than  his 
own  Spanish  or  Portuguese,  and  he  is  now  adding 
English  with  considerable  rapidity  to  his  linguistic 
repertoire. 


42        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

It  is  an  Eastern  trait  to  be  enthusiastic  and  extrava- 
gantly inclined  in  starting  new  designs,  and  often  quite 
inadequate  when  it  comes  to  executing  them.  A  suc- 
cessful East  Indian  business  man  of  Calcutta  who  has 
been  knighted  for  his  accomplishments  by  the  British 
Government,  told  me  that  the  secret  of  his  success  was 
in  thinking  up  his  big  plans  and  securing  the  best 
Europeans  he  could  hire  to  help  him  execute  them. 
"The  Easterner,"  said  he,  "has  talent  and  imagination 
but  his  training  has  left  him  poor  in  persistence  and  the 
dogged  ability  to  carry  through  his  schemes." 

^It  is  somewhat  thus  with  the  South  American.  He' 
is  intellectual,  idealistic  and  also  brave,  but  ineffective 
frequently  in  effort.  Some  have  expressed  doubt 
whether  or  not  the  Latin  American  was  a  misfit  in  a 
continent  calling  for  large  and  continuous  industrial 
and  scientific  effort.  It  seems  certain  that  with  all  the 
exhilarating  vigour,  the  passionate  impulsiveness,  the 
fury  of  life  evidenced  in  their  dancing,  their  pleasure 
seeking  and  rapid  movements,  the  Latin  American 
seems  to  lack  perpetual  action  as  a  background  and 
support  for  his  energy.  Ganivet,  the  Spanish  critic, 
once  said  that  his  countrymen  were  afflicted  with  a 
disease  which  he  called  "aboulia" — lack  of  will  power 
— and  Mr.  Havelock  Ellis  in  his  "The  Soul  of  Spain," 
quoting  from  another  Spanish  man  of  letters,  says: 

"This  capricious  and  facile  expenditure  of  energy, 
Macias  Picavea  traces  in  the  form  of  two  original  de- 
fects of  character;  an  original  defect  in  the  predomi- 
nance of  passion  over  will,  an  original  moral  defect  in 
the  substitution  of  the  principle  of  justice  by  the  socially 
inadequate  sentiment  of  friendship  and  affection.     By, 


THE  ORIENTAL  SOUTH  AMERICAN        43 

the  first  defect  he  accounts  for  the  Spanish  tendency  to 
live  in  the  present  and  put  off  every  inconvenient  task 
to  a  remote  manana,  the  impulse  to  convert  life  into  a 
lottery,  the  subjectivism  that  is  content  with  imaginary 
possibilities  in  place  of  solid  and  prudent  motives. 

"The  second  quality  is  the  source  of  the  administra- 
tive immorality  of  Spain,  which  consists,  not  so  much 
in  venality  or  theft,  as  in  the  domestic  and  neighbourly 
feeling  which  is  always  inclined  to  favour  a  friend  be- 
cause he  is  a  friend,  and  which  erects  impunity  almost 
into  a  law." 

I  am  inclined  to  think  this  particular  Spaniard  was 
a  bit  of  a  wailer  and  deplorer  by  nature;  nevertheless, 
this  tendency  of  the  Latin-minded  Spanish  American 
to  be  abnormally  devoted  to  his  family,  his  friend  and 
his  guest,  at  the  expense  of  the  world  outside  has  pro- 
duced almost  unawares  an  anti-social  tendency  in  these 
republics.  South  America  is  not  a  region  known  for 
its  social  movements,  and  apart  from  what  is  done  by 
the  charities  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  country  as 
a  whole  is  poor  in  activities  aimed  at  the  betterment  of 
society  as  such.  In  this  also  the  South  American  is 
as  unlike  the  North  American  with  his  multitudinous 
"causes"  and  movements  for  social  betterment,  as  he 
is  like  the  Oriental  in  his  emphasis  upon  individualism 
and  family  devotion. 

The  Indians  of  the  Andean  section,  for  example, 
have  been  left  for  generations  to  degenerate  into  beasts 
of  burden,  feeding  on  the  coca  leaves  that  leave  them 
more  helpless  still,  virtually  without  schools  or  amelio- 
rating agencies  to  soften  the  laborious  drudgery  of 
their  lives  passed  in  mines  where  they  labour  almost  as 
slaves  for  the  white  man,  or  eke  out  a  bare  existence 


44        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

on  the  barren  sides  of  the  cheerless  Cordilleras.  There 
are,  to  be  sure,  no  such  signs  of  poverty  in  South  Amer- 
ican cities  as  one  finds  in  many  places  in  the  Orient; 
but  as  long  as  compulsory  education  is  such  a  farce  as 
it  is  in  many  a  South  American  republic,  and  as  long  as 
vast  populations  of  Indians  are  left  to  their  abject  ig- 
norance and  savagery  in  some  parts,  so  long  as  the  ne- 
gro and  the  cholo  are  living  in  a  primitive  periphery 
of  poverty  and  mud  huts  about  many  of  the  cities,  this 
anti-social  characteristic  will  naturally  be  laid  at  the 
door  of  the  Latin  Americans. 

Isolation  from  the  world  at  large  was  the  cause  of 
the  stoppage  and  stagnation  of  many  an  Oriental  land. 
It  has  been  also  the  secret  of  many  of  the  evils  in  these 
Latin  republics.  For  centuries  the  Spaniards,  notably 
Philip  II,  did  their  best  to  isolate  and  keep  close-locked 
for  themselves  Spanish  America ;  the  kings  of  Portugal 
likewise  kept  closed  the  ports  of  Brazil  as  long  as  their 
power  over  this  vast  region  existed. 

It  has  been  only  in  comparatively  recent  times  that 
the  South  American  nations  have  been  in  contact  with 
the  wider  world  of  trade  and  thought.  Until  recently 
it  took  37  days  for  a  letter  from  New  York  to  reach  the 
city  of  Valparaiso,  on  its  dilatory  journey  in  small 
coastal  steamers  that  stop  and  loiter  along  the  West 
Coast.  The  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  has  been  a 
liberator  par  excellence  for  western  South  America,  but 
its  full  results  are  not  yet  evidenced. 

South  America  has  still  to  learn  the  lesson  Japan 
learned  so  quickly  when  she  finally  opened  her  small 
nation  to  the  four  winds  and  scattered  her  students 
and  seekers  for  modern  light  across  the  world.     These 


THE  ORIENTAL  SOUTH  AMERICAN        45 

republics  are  still  too  proud  of  themselves,  and  at  times 
too  conservative  to  "polish  their  gems  with  stones 
brought  from  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

Pan  Americanism  is  still  too  much  a  paper  idealism 
to  satisfy  its  most  keen  and  ardent  supporters  and  pro- 
moters. Like  the  East,  this  part  of  the  world  is  too 
much  inclined  to  be  suspicious  of  advance,  and  to  be 
satisfied  with  the  ways  of  their  fathers,  simply  because 
these  were  their  fathers'  ways  and  for  no  other  osten- 
sible reason. 

I  asked  farmers  in  the  wastes  of  Peru  and  Chile  why 
they  continued  to  plough  with  crooked  sticks,  and  live 
in  mud  walls,  and  their  answer  was  identical  with  that 
I  have  heard  repeatedly  from  the  lips  of  East  Indians 
and  Chinese  cultivators  in  the  inland  parts  of  the  Far 
East — "What  was  good  enough  for  our  fathers  is  good 
enough  for  us." 

The  great  war  will  end  some  of  this  isolation,  it  is 
already  bringing  Brazil  especially  into  touch  with  the 
great  movements  of  the  wide  world  in  a  way  to  assure 
in  the  future  a  progress  of  unlimited  extent.  Other 
republics  cannot  long  hold  back.  The  tide  of  mod- 
ernity is  beginning  to  flow  stronger  than  ever  before  in 
most  of  the  twenty  Latin  American  states.  Brazil  and 
Argentina  and  Uruguay  especially  are  the  Japans  of 
progress  and  leadership  of  Latin  America,  and  as  the 
Sunrise  Kingdom  set  the  whole  Orient  astir  and  throb- 
bing with  renewed  life,  so  these  advancing  states  with 
their  men  of  culture  and  keenness  for  commerce  and 
world  contacts,  will  lead  the  way  of  Southern  America 
out  of  medievalism  and  that  Orientalism  which  hin- 
dered rather  than  helped. 


46        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

South  America  will  always  bear  marks  of  the  East- 
ern temperament.  It  will  be  good  for  her  and  for  us 
that  she  does  retain  certain  of  the  traits  that  we  in  the 
clear,  hard,  crystal,  business-mad  North  need  and  may 
well  emulate.  The  isolation  and  the  unsocial  habits 
will  go,  and  in  their  place  will  come  by  some  agencies, 
native  or  foreign,  industries  and  reforms  of  political 
and  social  institutions,  such  as  will  make  South  Amer- 
ica, not  only  "safe  for  democracy,"  but  one  of  the  fair- 
est and  most  fruitful  gardens  of  the  earth. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 

We  have  distrusted,  however,  because  back  of  all  the  lines 
of  navigation,  the  industries  and  the  contracts  with  the  state, 
we  have  discerned  an  absorbing,  dominating  policy,  which  de- 
sired to  subject  the  country  to  its  exclusive  influence,  which 
sought  to  Prussianise  it,  forgetful  of  its  character,  its  tradition, 
the  genius  of  its  race  and  its  well-established  prerogatives  of 
nationality. — Senor  Carlos  Silva  Vildosola  (for  many 
years  director  of  "El  Mercurio,"  the  leading  newspaper  of 
Santiago). 

THE  influence  of  Germany  in  South  America  has 
been  called  a  "penetration."  The  word  was 
well  chosen,  for  there  is  scarcely  a  realm  of  life 
connected  with  these  republics  which  has  been  free 
from  a  more  or  less  systematised  plan  on  the  part  of 
the  Germans  to  get  a  firm  foothold,  and  to  make  pre- 
dominant there  things  and  thought  "made  in  Ger- 
many." 

By  sending  his  German  professors  and  teachers,  the 
Teuton  has  endeavoured  to  impregnate  the  youth  and 
the  school  systems  of  the  republics  with  the  method 
used  in  Germany.  By  a  thorough  training  of  her  trad- 
ers and  manufacturers,  even  before  they  left  their 
own  land,  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  suit  Latin 
American  conditions  in  the  matter  of  language,  cred- 
its, packing  and  kind  of  articles  needed.    The  German 

47 


48        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

officers  who  have  trained  the  military  in  a  number  of 
the  republics  have  made  a  deep  impression  upon  the 
army  contingents  of  these  South  American  nations,  and 
in  dress  and  deportment,  as  well  as  in  arms  made  in 
Germany,  the  soldiers  of  such  countries  as  Chile,  for 
example,  might  almost  be  mistaken  for  Germans — 
caps,  capes,  moustaches  et  al.  In  this  latter  country  es- 
pecially, where  there  is  a  strong  native  inclination  for 
fighting,  the  German  military  propaganda  has  been 
more  influential  than  the  professorial  mission,  and  only 
through  the  later  developments  of  the  war  has  the  en- 
thusiasm been  lessened  for  German  types  of  militarism. 

The  founding  of  German  colonies  in  South  America 
has  also  entered  into  the  German  scheme  at  penetra- 
tion. The  three  hundred  thousand  or  more  Germans 
settled  in  the  temperate  climate  of  South  Brazil,  and  the 
large  German  settlement  in  the  region  of  Valdivia,  in 
Southern  Chile,  are  two  notable  cases  in  point,  where 
the  German  ambition  has  been  toward  permanent  hold- 
ings in  a  new  German  Empire  in  South  America.  In 
such  sections  as  these,  I  have  visited  schools  which  to 
outward  appearance  of  teachers  and  curriculum,  might 
have  been  in  Hamburg  or  Berlin.  In  certain  of  the 
towns  in  Santa  Catharina,  Parana,  or  Rio  Grande  do 
Sul — Joinville,  for  instance — I  was  told  by  responsible 
people  that  it  was  really  difficult  for  any  person  who 
did  not  speak  German  to  get  work  in  the  community. 

Commerce  has  been  the  particular  avenue  through 
which  the  German  has  endeavoured  to  penetrate  Latin 
America,  and  in  this  realm  his  progress,  especially  in 
the  last  forty  years,  has  been  remarkable.  He  has 
established  large  banks  in  the  cities  and  larger  towns; 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA       49 

he  has  founded  business  houses  directly  in  touch  with 
his  homeland,  and  evidently  under  close  supervision  and 
surveillance  of  the  German  government;  he  has  imi- 
tated and  manufactured  at  low  cost  almost  every  na- 
tive product  the  South  Americans  desire  or  use ;  he  has 
built  hotels  and  restaurants  in  replica  of  those  found 
in  Germany,  and  it  has  been  clear  that  no  detail  like 
clubs,  newspapers,  literature  and  social  organisations 
pleasing  to  the  Teutonic  mind  and  habits,  has  been 
omitted  in  order  that  the  coloniser  and  trader  might 
duplicate  as  far  as  possible  fatherland  environment. 

At  the  opening  of  the  war,  the  German  commerce 
throughout  South  America  had  reached  such  flourish- 
ing proportions  that  even  Great  Britain,  the  arch 
trader  of  the  world,  with  all  of  her  long-time  hold  on 
the  trade  of  Latin  America,  found  some  difficulty  in 
keeping  her  lead  in  the  matter  of  South  American 
business,  while  the  relation  of  the  exports  from  the 
United  States  and  Germany  were  in  the  ratio  of  seven 
per  cent  to  twenty-five  per  cent  in  Germany's  favour. 

In  every  way  conceivable,  the  Teutons  sought  to  in- 
gratiate themselves  into  South  American  favour. 
They  did  as  the  Romans  did,  revealed  a  studied  po- 
liteness in  bows,  handshaking  and  hat-lifting,  learned 
to  use  excellent  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  flattered  and 
fawned  where  it  seemed  to  their  advantage  to  do  so, 
and  even  intermarried  with  the  native  peoples,  being 
careful  to  exhibit  at  least  a  show  of  loyalty  to  South 
American  governments  and  institutions. 

No  privations  were  too  great  to  be  undergone  for 
the  sake  of  winning  trade  and  prestige.  The  trav- 
eller is  surprised  to  find  the  German  in  such  isolated 


50        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

countries  as  Bolivia,  where  he  has  gone  Germanising 
fourteen  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  To  this  moun- 
tain republic,  Germany  sent  a  few  years  ago  a  com- 
mittee of  experts  to  study  the  market  even  to  the  most 
insignificant  details,  taking  back  to  Germany  complete 
sets  of  samples  of  every  article  that  it  was  possible  to 
imitate  and  send  to  these  out-of-the-way  populations. 
As  a  result,  if  one  goes  to  a  shop  in  the  Andean  region 
to  purchase  a  poncho,  that  picturesque  blanket  that 
every  Indian  or  cholo  of  the  lofty  Cordilleras  wears 
in  place  of  an  overcoat,  he  will  need  to  be  a  close  stu- 
dent of  such  articles  to  distinguish  a  poncho,  made  by 
the  Indians,  and  one  manufactured  and  dyed  to  suit 
the  taste,  but  exported  from  Germany. 

Other  Indian  products  have  been  treated  in  the  same 
way,  and  if  one  is  privileged  to  attend  the  great  Fair 
in  January  held  at  La  Paz — the  "Alacitas" — where 
much  pride  has  been  shown  heretofore  in  the  exhibi- 
tion of  innumerable  native  articles,  he  will  find  the 
people  carefully  examining  the  products  to  detect  imi- 
tations of  native  skill,  since  the  majority  of  them  have 
been  made  at  short  notice  by  the  alert  German  manu- 
facturer. It  is  commonly  reported  in  South  Amer- 
ica that  these  German-made  imitations  are  fine  to  look 
at,  and  resemble  so  closely  the  original  native  articles 
that  one  can  scarcely  note  the  difference ;  but  the  qual- 
ity of  the  manufacture  is  said  to  be  inferior  in  most 
cases,  the  things  being  made  to  sell,  and  with  little  fur- 
ther premeditation.  One  South  American  in  buying  a 
German  sewing  machine  informed  me  that  he  knew 
he  would  be  obliged  to  get  another  machine  within  the 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA      51 

year,  but  the  low  price  suited  his  pocketbook  for  the 
time  being. 

I  found  that  in  this  section  the  German  manufacturer 
would  make  changes  in  his  exported  products,  and 
often  without  additional  charge  beyond  the  price  sub- 
mitted with  the  samples.  If  the  South  American  mer- 
chant asks  for  a  red  shirt  in  a  purple  box,  he  is  sold  a 
red  shirt  in  a  purple  box.  The  German  does  not  tell 
him  that  he  makes  only  blue  shirts  and  incloses  them  in 
green  boxes.  He  caters  to  his  client's  taste  in  every 
respect.  Furthermore,  if  a  German  once  gets  a  client, 
he  will  go  to  all  possible  lengths  to  hold  him,  although 
in  many  lines,  especially  in  hardware  on  the  West 
Coast,  farming  machinery  and  mining  tools,  it  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  the  American  goods  are  superior  to 
those  of  German  manufacture. 

Another  hold  the  Teuton  has  upon  trade  in  the 
mountain  states  is  due  to  the  fact  that,  in  addition  to 
extended  credits  and  the  adaptation  of  goods,  he  has 
made  himself  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  somewhat 
unique  methods  of  transportation  in  these  sections. 

Bolivia,  for  example,  is  an  interior  country  having 
no  seaport,  and  secures  her  supplies  through  the  far 
away  ports  of  Mollendo,  Peru,  or  Arica  and  Antofa- 
gasta  in  Chile.  From  these  points,  imports  must  be 
hauled  over  the  Andes,  at  times  on  rack  railroads, 
sometimes  over  five  or  six  hundred  miles  of  thirty- 
inch  gauge  and  over  very  steep  grades ;  in  other  cases 
the  goods  are  shipped  on  boats  across  Lake  Titicaca. 
These  trans-shipments  need  to  be  borne  in  mind  by 
the  shipper,  as  the  products  are  submitted  to  the  rough- 
est of  handling,  from  steamships  to  lighters  in  open 


52       UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

roadsteads,  thence  to  railroads,  and  inland  steamers, 
and  often  in  parts  of  their  progress  by  llama  and 
mule  back,  with  all  the  consequent  handling,  loading 
and  unloading  from  animals  on  long  trails  when  they 
are  stopped  for  rest. 

Such  details  as  the  size  of  packages  are  extremely 
important  since  a  llama,  for  instance,  will  carry  a 
weight  up  to  one  hundred  pounds,  but  beyond  that  bur- 
den he  is  particularly  sensitive,  and  literally  lies  down 
and  forcibly  objects.  This  matter  has  been  scrupu- 
lously considered  by  the  German  manufacturer,  adjust- 
ing the  weight  of  the  cases  so  that  the  trans-shipper 
can  tell  at  once  the  best  means  to  be  employed  for 
sending  the  goods  into  the  country  districts.  The 
packing  cases  are  made  of  the  best  quality  of  wood  to 
stand  the  treatment,  and  in  many  instances  as  I  no- 
ticed, they  were  reinforced  at  the  corners  with  slats  of 
the  same  thickness  as  the  boards  of  the  boxes.  An 
obstreperous  llama  may  roll  down  a  hill,  but  the  goods 
will  not  be  scattered  over  the  surrounding  country,  as 
I  have  at  times  seen  American  products  decorating  the 
bleak  slopes  of  the  Andes. 

A  Chilean  importer  told  me  that  he  had  discovered 
for  several  years  certain  of  the  American  shirts  and 
socks  shipped  to  him  from  the  United  States,  adorn- 
ing the  persons  of  the  flotilla  men  who  had  appropri- 
ated them  when  the  boxes  from  the  "States"  popped 
open  as  they  landed  in  their  lighters. 

The  Bolivian  and  Peruvian  markets  in  the  high 
mountain  regions,  because  of  the  rich  mineral  and  land 
wealth  of  this  sequestered  region,  are  sure  to  be  increas- 
ingly important.     Germany  has  seen  that  the  people 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA      53 

here  want  merchandise  of  the  cheapest  make,  and  that 
the  poorer  classes  (for  the  most  part  agriculturists  and 
miners)  buy  eighty  per  cent  of  the  total  imports  of  the 
republic.  To  this  constituency  the  best  expert  thought 
has  been  given,  with  results  that  have  placed  German 
products  generally  in  the  hands  of  the  people. 

In  Chile,  German  propaganda  in  various  lines  has 
made  great  headway  during  recent  years. 

As  I  sailed  into  the  picturesque  harbour  of  Val- 
paraiso, I  was  impressed  with  the  large  number  of 
ships  on  all  sides.  I  remarked  to  the  captain  of  our 
boat  that  I  had  no  idea  Valparaiso  was  such  a  vast 
shipping  port.  The  captain  smiled  and  said,  "It  isn't. 
Those  thirty  ships  that  you  see  about  us  are  all  in- 
terned German  vessels.  The  crews  evidently  thought 
that  this  was  one  of  the  most  favourable  ports  in  South 
America  in  which  to  get  stranded.  They  are  here  for 
the  simple  reason  that  they  can't  get  away." 

I  noted,  in  this  German  merchant  marine  fleet,  six- 
teen sailing  ships  reminding  one  that  the  old  days  of 
the  clipper  ships  were  still  in  vogue.  These  ships  had 
about  half-crews,  and  the  men  who  have  lain  on  them 
now  for  nearly  three  years,  do  not  give  the  impres- 
sion that  they  enjoy  the  enforced  vacation.  One  large 
importer  told  me  how  he  had  been  invited  to  go  on 
board  one  of  the  largest  of  these  German  vessels,  where 
he  saw  a  fine  oump  which  he  coveted  for  his  own  use 
on  shore. 

'Til  give  you  seven  pounds  for  that  pump,"  said  the 
importer  to  the  German  captain. 

The  captain  was  indignant  and  fumed,  "Why,  that 


54        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

pump  cost  twenty  pounds,  and  furthermore,  do  you 
think  I  would  sell  any  apparatus  connected  with  my 
ship?" 

"You  would  be  a  fool,  if  you  didn't,"  returned  the 
importer,  "since  you  know  that  this  ship  will  never  leave 
this  harbour  under  your  flag.  You  had  better  sell  all 
of  the  furniture  you  can,  while  the  selling  is  good." 

The  bulky  German  nearly  exploded  in  his  patriotic 
wrath;  nevertheless,  two  days  later,  the  importer  re- 
ceived the  pump. 

The  Germans  in  Chile  are  connected  with  the  Val- 
divia  colony  founded  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  in  the  fruitful  section  ^of  southern  Chile,  or 
are  the  Germans  who  have  bee,n  called  in  to  train  the 
soldiery;  or  they  are  teachers;and  business  men.  The 
Valdivia  Germans  are  the  sons  of  old  Germany  who 
left  their  land  in  that  political  and  economic  crisis  when 
the  older  idealism  of  that  nation  was  exchanged  for 
the  military  ambitions  of  modern  Prussia.  These  peo- 
ple do  not  belong  to  the  modern  penetration  move- 
ment, and  live  peaceably  and  industrially  as  farmers 
chiefly,  partially  allying  themselves  with  the  native 
people  in  a  free  land. 

During  the  last  thirty  years  the  German  movement 
has  depended  particularly  upon  the  Teuton  professors 
sent  to  Chile  under  contract  with  the  Chilean  govern- 
ment, and  the  German  military  officers  whom  Gen- 
eral Korner,  a  German  ex-captain,  engaged  as  instruct- 
ors for  the  army.  This  German  captain,  Korner,  by 
reasons  of  his  connection  with  the  country's  civil  war 
of  1 89 1,  became  almost  an  arbiter  of  Chilean  military 
institutions. 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA       55 

In  the  wake  of  these  pioneer  propagandists  for  Ger- 
many, came  a  new  diplomacy,  a  fresh  inflow  of  capital 
from  across  the  seas,  German  banks  and  industries,  to- 
gether with  large  firms  for  doing  business  on  an  in- 
creased scale.  As  one  Chilean  describes  the  condi- 
tion: uthe  interest  which  the  Prussian  Emperor,  the 
government  and  the  people  of  Germany  felt  in  Chile 
was  proclaimed  with  all  formality." 

The  militarists  were  more  effective  for  the  German 
penetration  than  were  the  teachers,  since  the  militant 
Catholics  combatted  the  teachers  as  a  peril  to  national 
religious  unity.  Popular  sentiment  was  reflected  in  the 
campaign  waged  quite  strenuously  in  the  press  by  one 
of  Chile's  well  known  poets,  against  the  German  pro- 
fessors, accusing  the  authorities  who  were  responsible 
for  engaging  German  instructors  of  being  infected  with 
"German  enchantment.,, 

The  avenue  to  Chilean  conquest  was  easier  for  the 
Germans  by  the  way  of  the  military,  the  Chilean  be- 
ing predisposed  to  such  matters,  a  fact  not  overlooked 
by  the  Teutons.  The  army  system  was  Prussianised 
as  one  might  say  over  night,  with  little  regard  for  ad- 
justments fitted  to  the  Republic.  Sefior  Vildosola, 
whom  I  have  already  quoted,  writes: 

"The  Prussian  regulations  were  translated  and  ap- 
plied, the  military  life  was  changed  to  its  foundations, 
and  it  was  all  done  with  an  unheard  of  precipitancy, 
without  ascertaining  if  it  was  best  or  not  for  the  coun- 
try, by  means  of  copying  mechanically. 

"On  a  certain  good  day  the  Chileans  beheld  their 
soldiers  uniformed  in  Prussian  tunics,  with  green,  red 
and  yellow  borders,  with  many  adornments  and  much 


56        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

gold  braid,  dark  heads  covered  with  helmets  terminat- 
ing in  a  point,  file  past  with  that  parade  step  which 
caricature  has  made  known  throughout  the  world. 

"This  exact  reproduction  of  the  regulations,  the 
methods,  the  uniforms  and  even  the  utensils  for  the 
use  of  the  army  facilitated  the  other  aspect  of  the  re- 
form, which  consisted  in  the  acquirement  by  the  gov- 
ernment of  Chile,  in  Germany,  of  whatever  might  be 
necessary  for  the  army,  from  the  Krupp  cannon  and 
Mauser  rifles,  to  the  shoes  for  the  horses  and  the  cloth 
of  divers  colours  with  which  the  soldiers  should  clothe 
themselves  according  to  the  Prussian  usage  and  tradi- 
tion." 

Naturally  there  was  protest  on  the  part  of  the  Chile- 
ans. A  band  of  famous  Chilean  generals  was  retired, 
because  they  censured  this  rapid  manner  of  German- 
ising Chile.  Later,  the  nation  rose  more  generally 
against  the  high-handed  measures  of  these  military  and 
political  and  commercial  agents  of  Germany.  A  noted 
professor  who  was  found  too  insolent  was  returned  to 
Germany.  An  undesirable  German  engineer,  who  had 
been  given  supervision  of  the  railways,  was  sent  home, 
and  gradually  the  nation  became  aware  of  the  differ- 
ence between  Prussian  methods  and  those  of  a  repub- 
lic. In  spite  of  all  the  German  effort,  it  is  safe  to  say, 
in  the  words  of  a  Chilean,  "the  Germans  have  never 
been  able  to  penetrate  the  Chilean  soul." 

Here,  as  in  Brazil,  there  arose  a  racial  distrust  of 
the  German.  Their  conscious  superiority,  their  in- 
solent pride  at  times,  and  a  lack  of  sufficient  imagina- 
tion to  fit  themselves  sympathetically  to  the  Latin  tem- 
perament, did  not  augur  well  for  the  final  subjugation 
of  South  American  peoples  by  Germany,  even  before 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA      57 

the  European  war  opened.  With  the  opening  of  the 
war,  the  latent  love  for  France  sprang  up,  and  the  con- 
duct of  the  German  raiders  of  commerce,  together 
with  such  events  as  the  treatment  of  Belgium,  the  sink- 
ing of  the  Lusitania,  and  the  general  policy  of  the 
Prussians  in  waging  war,  were  further  proofs  to  the 
Chileans,  as  they  were  to  the  South  Americans  gen- 
erally, that  Germany  was  not  inherently  "simpatico" 
with  Latin  America.  It  seemed  to  be  a  popular  in- 
stinct wherever  I  went  in  these  countries,  outside  of  the 
German  circles  themselves,  that  South  America  should 
be  pro-ally. 

There  was  also  a  growing  feeling  in  Chile,  even  be- 
fore the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  that  European  na- 
tions did  not  understand  that  country,  and  the  national 
pride  was  frequently  hurt  by  slighting  allusions  to  Chile- 
ans as  fit  topics  for  comic  opera  and  fun-making. 
There  seemed  to  be  a  tendency  for  the  sturdy  de- 
scendants of  the  Araucanians,  to  draw  within  them- 
selves and  retain  the  isolation  which  their  peculiar- 
shaped  land  had  given  them  geographically.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  the  sentiment  toward  the  United  States, 
which  has  not  always  been  the  best  in  Chile,  is  improv- 
ing in  late  years,  and  the  part  we  are  taking  in  the  war 
has  certainly  increased  the  favourable  feeling  of  Chile-, 
ans  toward  us. 

When  I  arrived  in  Chile  the  British  "black  list"  had 
just  been  put  into  operation,  and  there  was  consider- 
able complaint  among  all  classes,  particularly  Germans. 
It  was  observed  with  strictness  from  the  start,  for  Eng- 
lish, Irish  and  Scotch  influence  comprise  much  foreign 
power  here,  the  Britishers  being  connected  with  the  old 


58       UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Chilean  families,  both  by  ties  of  marriage,  and  also  by- 
reason  of  many  services  rendered  the  country  by  sea- 
men, statesmen  and  traders. 

I  was  walking  on  the  street  of  Santiago  one  day  with 
an  Englishman  and  was  about  to  take  him  into  a  res- 
taurant for  lunch,  when  he  stopped  short  at  the  sign 
over  the  door — "German! — Nothing  doing  for  me!" 
my  British  friend  exclaimed,  and  drew  away.  At  that 
time  this  discrimination  against  the  German  and  his 
works  seemed  a  bit  childish  to  me  and  to  many  Chile- 
ans, I  am  sure,  but  later  acquaintance  with  the  foe  of 
nearly  the  whole  civilised  world  has  changed  opinion 
greatly.  The  reasons  are  too  patent  to  need  enum- 
eration here.  When  a  quiet  lover  of  peace  and  na- 
ture like  John  Burroughs  appears  in  print  with  the 
signed  resolve  that  he  will  never  again  look  into  a  mod- 
ern German  book,  it  is  small  wonder  to  find  the  Chilean 
point  of  view  changing  with  that  of  other  nations  which 
have  tried  in  vain  to  feel  and  act  with  neutrality. 

I  would  not  give  the  impression  that  Chile  was  then, 
or  in  fact  is  at  present,  ready  to  take  up  arms  on  the 
side  of  the  Allies  and  use  her  200,000  soldiers,  German 
trained,  to  fight  down  the  Boche.  Here,  as  in  every 
South  American  state,  the  Prussian  emissaries  were 
busy  from  the  very  opening  of  the  war,  using  the  press 
of  Chile  when  they  could,  and  especially  the  pro- 
German,  conservative  and  clerical  organ,  La  Union, 
to  distribute  among  the  people  a  one-sided  view  of 
affairs  in  Europe. 

The  army,  too,  was  a  centre  in  which  the  Germans 
practiced  all  kinds  of  depredations  upon  Chilean  neu- 
trality.    German  agents  established  a  newspaper  and 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA      59 

called  it  La  Gaceta  Militar,  with  the  design  to  carry 
the  idea  outside  Chile  that  this  was  the  mouthpiece  of 
the  Chilean  army.  Two  Spaniards  were  placed  in 
charge  of  this  propaganda,  and  it  soon  became  neces- 
sary for  Chile  to  make  known  widely  the  true  nature 
of  this  sheet,  disavowing  that  it  represented  in  any 
sense  the  beliefs  or  the  convictions  of  the  military  au- 
thorities. 

At  first,  the  press  in  general  was  neutral  and  colour- 
less in  its  presentations,  but  as  the  paralysing  of  Chilean 
commerce  grew  apace,  and  as  the  raids  of  German  war 
vessels  along  the  coasts  of  Chile  and  South  America 
began  to  disarrange  the  sailings  of  the  British  merchant 
marine  upon  which  Chile  was  now  largely  dependent 
for  her  commerce,  there  was  a  noticeable  change  of 
tone.  No  one  knew  better  than  these  people  that  the 
long  unprotected  Chilean  coast,  a  stretch  of  2,485  miles, 
with  its  maze  of  passages,  small  islands  and  deserted 
regions  in  the  south,  was  a  first  class  hiding  place  for 
German  raiders  which  obtained  their  coal  supplies  from 
Chile  by  some  kind  of  connivance,  contrary  of  course 
to  all  known  neutrality  laws.  When,  therefore,  the 
British  squadron  destroyed  the  German  cruisers  in  the 
naval  battle  off  the  Falkland  Islands  and  Juan  Fernan- 
dez, Chile  breathed  a  sigh  of  relief,  and  her  commerce 
began  again. 

From  that  time  the  German  propagandists  spoke  in 
lower  tones.  The  convictions  of  the  people,  even 
though  not  always  expressed  openly,  leaned  decidedly 
toward  the  realisation  that  two  great  principles  of  civ- 
ilisation were  held  up  for  choice — the  rights  of  men  and 


60        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  nations  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  subjection  by  force 
of  military  power  as  the  other  alternative. 

Whatever  the  Chileans  may  see  fit  to  do  about 
aligning  themselves  alongside  Brazil,  the  United  States 
and  the  other  South  and  Central  American  republics 
against  the  enemy  of  liberties  of  small  nations,  it  may 
be  taken  for  granted  that  the  mass  of  public  opinion 
in  this  vigorous  state  is  in  line  with  the  following  strik- 
ing testimony  given  not  long  ago  by  one  of  the  most 
able  Chilean  exponents  of  the  press  in  that  republic : — 

"The  most  of  the  people  of  Chile  recognise  that 
there  are  judicial  reasons  in  the  interests  of  civilisa- 
tion and  humanity,  in  the  defense  of  the  constituent 
principles  of  all  democracies,  and  in  order  to  save  from 
destruction  the  Latin  civilisation  to  which  we  belong, 
for  desiring  the  triumph  of  the  Allies,  and  the  suppres- 
sion of  German  militarism. " 

The  witness  for  the  Chileans  then  proceeds  to  say  in 
a  notable  summary  of  the  reasons  why  we  are  engaged 
in  this  world-wide  combat: — 

"A  consensus  has  been  reached  regarding  certain 
fundamental  points  that  may  be  summed  up  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner : 

"i.  That  Germany  provoked  this  war  when  it 
suited  her,  after  having  prepared  her  people  during  a 
labour  of  forty  years,  by  means  of  an  education  and 
organisation  whose  only  object  was  to  attack  Europe 
for  the  purpose  of  conquest. 

2.  That  a  mentality  like  hers,  capable  of  subjecting 
an  entire  nation  with  a  view  to  aggression  and  con- 
quest, is  opposed  to  modern  ideas  of  liberty,  human 
fraternity  and  moral  progress. 

3.  That  the  triumph  of  a  nation  that  proclaims  mili- 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA      61 

tary  necessity  as  a  sufficient  reason  for  violating  treat- 
ies, in  which  might  is  set  up  as  the  only  source  of  au- 
thority, in  which  their  essential  liberties  are  denied  to 
nations,  would  be  the  greatest  peril  that  could  be  en- 
countered by  modern  democracies  and  all  those  prin- 
ciples upon  which  American  independence  was  estab- 
lished. 

4.  That  all  the  methods  heralded  by  German  writ- 
ers, sanctioned  in  their  military  regulations  and  applied 
to  the  war,  are  contrary  to  the  notions  of  humanity 
which  Christianity  diffused  through  the  world,  and  do 
violence  to  the  engagements  entered  into  by  civilised 
peoples  to  remove  the  elements  of  useless  and  barbar- 
ous cruelty  of  the  primitive  ages. 

5.  That  there  exists  at  the  heart  of  this  struggle  a 
conflict  between  the  two  philosophical  and  political 
tendencies  that  have  disputed  for  the  domination  of 
peoples  and  the  inspirations  of  their  movements:  one 
based  upon  right  and  the  other  upon  force;  one  upon 
liberty  and  the  other  upon  subjection;  one  upon  fra- 
ternity and  the  other  upon  hatred  cultivated  as  a  sa- 
cred and  almost  mystical  principle." 

Such  a  pronouncement  of  opinion,  in  accord  we  be- 
lieve with  the  inner  sentiment  of  the  Latin  Americans 
generally  (excepting  Germans  themselves  and  their  in- 
timate Germanophile  satellites),  on  the  West  Coast  as 
well  as  in  Chile,  cannot  be  especially  flattering  to  either 
the  method  or  discernment  of  German  propaganda  in 
these  sections.  Perhaps  it  was  not  wholly  the  fault  of 
the  Teuton  spies  and  press-agents.  They  had  a  dram- 
atis personae  to  advertise  and  explain  that  would  have 
taxed  the  brains  and  ingenuity  of  a  greater  race  than 
the  Germans,  not  noted  for  imaginative  perspective  or 
humour;  the  villainous  German  elements  in  this  world 
tragedy  overbear  all  palliative  explanation.     The  al- 


62        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

most  constant  fracture  of  all  known  principles  of  hu- 
manity and  civilisation  which  the  most  advanced  races 
have  known  and  been  guided  by  in  the  past,  have  given 
Germany's  most  sympathetic  adherents  in  the  Amer- 
icas a  melancholy  "quarter  of  an  hour." 

When  we  come  to  the  conditions  of  things  German 
on  the  East  Coast  of  South  America,  the  attitude  of 
the  people  toward  the  Teuton  propaganda  has  been 
revealed  in  the  decision  of  Brazil  to  break  her  neu- 
trality because  of  the  wrongs  done  to  her  shipping  and 
the  strong  sentiment  of  the  Brazilians  relative  to  the 
justice  of  the  Allied  cause. 

I  was  in  Brazil  immediately  before  the  declaration 
of  war  of  the  United  States  against  Germany.  There 
was  then  a  decided  nervousness  and  feeling  of  distrust 
of  the  Germans  on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants.  Re- 
peatedly one  could  hear  the  phrase  the  "German  men- 
ace"— and  by  these  words  the  people  referred  to  the 
fact  that  the  German  colonies  of  Santa  Catharina, 
Parana  and  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  especially,  where  the 
German  language  was  freely  spoken  and  German 
thought  and  institutions  were  well  established,  were 
not  in  keeping  with  the  ideas  of  a  republican  nation. 

"Every  one  of  the  thousands  of  Germans  in  South 
Brazil  is  a  trained  soldier,  and  these  people  seem  at 
heart  as  loyal  to  the  Kaiser  as  when  they  were  in  Ger- 
many," said  a  prominent  public  official  of  Brazil.  "In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Germans,"  continued  this  high 
authority,  "have  given  us  credits  and  adapted  them- 
selves in  a  superficial  way  to  our  modes  of  doing  busi- 
ness, we  don't  like  the  Germans  here  in  Brazil.    Their 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA       63 

spying  and  methods  of  dealing  in  war  times  have  made 
the  people  suspicious. " 

The  German  ships  interned  in  Brazilian  ports  were 
being  closely  watched.  The  British  "Black  List"  was 
keeping  the  issues  of  war  prominently  before  the  busi- 
ness community,  and  though  the  German  business 
agents  had  been  carrying  on  a  flourishing  trade  with 
Teuton  firms  in  the  United  States,  the  handicap  of  this 
black  listing  of  things  German  was  evidently  very  gen- 
eral and  tended  to  weaken  the  German  commerce  and 
regular  transactions.  This  branding  of  the  houses  and 
banks  of  Germany  in  Brazil,  as  all  along  the  East 
Coast  affected  American  concerns  and  was  especially 
felt  in  shipping  lines — a  fact  which  Germans  were  mak- 
ing the  most  of  in  the  attempt  to  array  the  foreigners 
as  well  as  the  native  inhabitants  against  the  Allies. 

The  press  gave  large  space  to  war  telegrams,  and 
the  people  were  well  served  with  the  news  from  the 
different  fronts  of  the  war.  No  one  could  travel  over 
Brazil  in  these  days  without  realising  the  growing 
tenseness  of  the  commercial  situation,  and  the  sym- 
pathy for  the  Allied  cause  was  apparent  among  the 
leading  men  in  almost  all  walks  of  life. 

When  the  Lusitania  was  sunk,  a  vote  immediately 
was  passed  in  one  of  the  most  prominent  clubs  fre- 
quented by  foreigners  in  the  Federal  Capital  of  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  asking  the  resignations  of  all  Germans  and 
Austrians.  Frequent  rumours  of  German  raiders 
along  the  East  Coast  accounted  for  the  presence  at 
times  of  warships  of  the  Allied  forces.  The  riots 
which  occurred  a  little  later  in  South  Brazil,  and  which 
were  speedily  taken  in  hand  and  quelled  by  Brazilian 


64        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

troops  increased  the  suspicions  of  the  Brazilians  as  to 
the  loyalty  of  the  large  German  colonist  population. 
Rifle  companies  and  squads  of  young  men,  members 
of  commercial  firms,  marching  and  drilling  called  forth 
great  crowds  and  much  patriotic  enthusiasm. 

It  was  heard  repeatedly  that  the  plan  of  Germany 
to  found  in  Southern  Brazil  a  German  South  Amer- 
ican Empire,  choosing  therefor  one  of  the  richest  gar- 
den spots  of  the  earth,  must  be  frustrated  by  Brazil- 
ians. No  one  can  appreciate  until  he  has  travelled 
through  this  rich  agricultural  section  comprising  the 
vast  areas  of  Parana,  Santa  Catharina,  and  Rio  Grande 
do  Sul,  how  strategic  and  well  founded  was  this  Ger- 
man dream.  It  is  a  territory  with  a  temperate  climate 
not  unlike  that  of  Central  Europe,  the  developing  cat- 
tle land  where  upwards  of  20,000,000  cattle  are  even 
now  grazing  on  these  rolling  prairies,  lands  capable 
of  raising  virtually  every  known  product  of  the  tem- 
perate zone;  and  valleys  by  the  sea  where  mate,  coffee, 
bananas,  and  many  tropical  fruits  find  their  home 
below  the  higher  regions  of  waving  corn-fields.  It 
is  also  a  prolific  lumber  section,  the  home  of  Parana 
pine,  and  varied  kinds  of  valuable  Brazilian  woods, 
which  are  being  exported  to  Uruguay,  Argentina  and 
other  South  American  republics  which  are  poor  in 
timber. 

This  wide  reaching  and  hitherto  only  sparsely  de- 
veloped region,  as  large  as  a  dozen  of  our  western 
states  combined,  contains  resources  sufficient  to  main- 
tain with  abundant  provision  the  entire  European  na- 
tions lying  about  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Such  ac- 
quisition would  have  been  many-fold  more  valuable  to 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA      65 

Germany  than  all  her  colonies,  and  in  fact  would  hold 
the  promise  of  being  even  a  greater  Germany  across  the 
seas,  as  Brazil  has  become  a  greater  Portugal,  and  as 
the  United  States,  by  reason  of  her  great  territory  and 
industrial  development,  gives  the  earnest  of  future 
agricultural  and  industrial  possibilities  surpassing  any- 
thing to  which  her  English  mother  country  is  capable. 

The  general  favourable  sentiment  of  the  Brazilians 
toward  the  United  States  was  placed  on  record  when 
the  northern  republic  declared  war  against  Germany. 
From  that  moment  the  war  sentiment  in  Brazil  grew 
with  great  rapidity.  Brazil's  speedy  decision,  her  pro- 
gressive plan  in  connection  with  guarding  the  South 
Atlantic  coasts,  thus  relieving  ships  of  the  Allies  for 
other  service,  her  military  aims  set  in  motion  for  the 
enlargement  of  her  army  [so  decisive  as  to  arouse  par- 
ticular notice  from  Argentina,  especially,  where  it  has 
been  suggested  that  Brazil's  war  measures  are  greater 
than  is  necessary  for  keeping  under  control  three  hun- 
dred thousand  inhabitants  of  German  descent] — all 
this  is  indicative  of  the  strong  feeling  expressed  to  me 
recently  by  a  prominent  Brazilian — "Never  again  will 
the  Germans  gain  a  foothold  in  Brazil." 

In  Argentina,  where  pro-German  sentiment  has  been 
stronger  among  certain  of  the  influential  people  of 
the  country,  the  issues  have  been  somewhat  more  com- 
plicated. German  propaganda  has  been  doing  its  best 
here  to  keep  its  grasp  on  one  of  the  largest  and  rich- 
est lands  of  Southern  America.  Here,  too,  for 
some  reason  the  President  of  the  republic  seems  to 
ave  been  playing  into  German  hands.  I  have  been 
old  by  reputable  Argentinos  that  President  Irogyan  is 


66       UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

not  so  much  pro-German  as  radical  and  wilful,  and 
that  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  when  this  repub- 
lic of  the  River  Plate  would  also  join  the  forces  of  free 
states  which  are  battling  against  German  militarism. 

Anyhow  Germany  has  given  this  nation  sufficient 
cause  to  act,  and  if  the  present  indications  are  at  all 
meaningful  or  filled  with  omens  for  the  future,  the 
mass  of  the  population  is  ready  and  eager  for  some- 
thing definitely  in  line  with  an  open  break  with  Ger- 
many. 

The  Argentine  press  freely  stated  that  there  had 
never  been  seen  in  Buenos  Aires  such  a  manifestation 
of  public  sentiment  and  patriotism  as  followed  the  Lux- 
burg  expose,  when  more  than  200,000  of  the  leading 
citizens  of  the  republic  marched  through  the  streets  of 
the  Capital,  with  bands  and  banners  and  cries  for  war 
against  Germany.  Senators  left  the  senate  halls  to 
join  in  the  procession,  and  united  with  a  commission 
of  deputies  and  senators  from  Uruguay,  who  had  come 
down  to  bring  to  their  neighbour  republic  the  sym- 
pathy and  the  wish  of  the  Uruguayan  people  for  a  rup- 
ture with  Germany. 

One  of  the  features  of  the  demonstration  was  a 
flag,  230  feet  long  and  wide  as  the  streets  through 
which  it  was  borne  by  200  men;  and  behind  this  huge 
ensign  there  were  carried  300  large  Argentine  flags 
and  100  flags  of  Uruguay.  Those  who  heard  the  songs 
of  the  multitude  of  marchers,  national  patriotic  songs 
mixed  freely  with  the  battle  hymns  of  the  Allies,  or 
heard  the  jeers  for  the  German  government  on  this 
occasion,  would  be  left  in  small  doubt  as  to  the  popular 
attitude  toward  Germany.     One  of  the  ensigns  borne 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA      67 

in  this  procession  read:  "No  more  German  spies, 
traitors  and  assassins!" 

The  demonstrations  of  good  will  made  before  the 
British  and  American  Legation  and  Embassy,  the  or- 
der preserved,  and  the  character  of  the  speeches  all 
served  to  put  Argentina  on  record  as  decidedly  opposed 
to  the  methods  with  which  Germany  is  carrying  on  the 
war.  It  would  seem  difficult  to  think  of  the  govern- 
ment of  Argentina  withstanding  long  such  evident  de- 
sires of  the  people  as  this  recent  demonstration  re- 
vealed. 

German  friends  in  Latin  America  seem  to  be  dimin- 
ishing. As  it  stands  at  present,  four  of  these  na- 
tions have  declared  war  on  Germany — Cuba,  Panama, 
Nicaragua,  and  Brazil.  Seven  countries  have  broken 
off  relations  with  Germany,  in  the  following  order  of 
procedure: — Bolivia,  Costa  Rica,  Guatemala,  Hayti, 
Honduras,  Peru  and  Uruguay.  Chile  revoked  her  neu- 
trality last  June,  and  the  will  of  the  people  of  Argen- 
tina has  been  plainly  shown. 

Among  the  professedly  neutral  countries  are  in- 
cluded Ecuador,  Paraguay,  Salvador,  and  technically 
Argentina,  also  Colombia,  Venezuela  and  Mexico.  Of 
these  three  latter  countries,  Colombia  is  said  to  be  in- 
fluenced by  doubtful  feelings  towards  the  United  States 
rather  than  by  any  sympathy  with  Germany ;  Venezuela, 
the  only  autocracy  left  in  the  Americas,  is  ruled  by 
General  Juan  Vicente  Gomez,  who  is  thought  to  be 
friendly  with  Germany,  and  Mexico  is  still  too  busily 
engaged  with  her  own  domestic  problems  and  the  dis- 
tractions of  recent  warfare  to  be  a  certain  quantity  on 
either  side. 


68       UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Despite  this  seemingly  growing  antipathy  to  Ger- 
many and  her  plans  in  Latin  America,  the  fact  must  be 
kept  in  mind  that  this  idea  of  Prussianising  a  large 
portion  of  the  southern  western  hemisphere  has  been 
one  of  Germany's  great  dreams  and  ambitions. 

The  American  Defense  Society  has  published  a 
pamphlet  in  which  Mr.  W.  H.  Gardiner,  an  American 
engineer,  has  gathered  and  exposed  the  gist  of  vari- 
ous writings  presented  chiefly  in  19 15  by  Teuton  bibli- 
ographers, statesmen  and  professors  relative  to  the 
ambitious  projects  of  a  victorious  Germany  in  the 
Americas.  "These  plans  are  so  amazingly  ambitious," 
says  Mr.  Gardiner,  "and  are  founded  on  such  an  ut- 
terly cynical  and  ruthless  disregard  of  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  all  non-Germans  that  for  the  first  ten  or 
twelve  years  those  men  who  first  caught  their  sinister 
trend  were  discredited." 

A  brief  summary  of  these  plans  of  Prussian  con- 
quest as  given  by  Mr.  Gardiner,  may  be  pondered  with 
advantage  at  this  time  by  those  who  are  interested  to 
know  about  the  Germanising  of  South  America : 

"The  lower  half  of  South  America  Prussia  planned 
to  acquire  by  peaceful  penetration,  revolution  and 
political  intrigue. 

"As  to  the  progress  made  to  date  on  these  lines,  note 
that  in  the  very  small  section  of  Brazil  south  of  Tropic 
of  Capricorn  there  are  now  over  400,000  native-born 
Germans  and  that  native-born  Germans  are  largely  in 
control  of  the  finances  and  commerce  of  Chile  and 
Argentina;  note  that  since  19 16  there  has  been  a  Ger- 
man rebellion  in  Southern  Brazil;  and  also  note  the 
equivocal  positions  of  the  Government  of  Chile  and 
Argentina  at  the  same  time. 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA      69 

"Realising  the  overwhelming  prestige  which  the 
complete  accomplishment  of  her  plans  in  Africa  and 
Asia  would  give  her,  Prussia  believed  that  Venezuela, 
Bolivia,  Peru  and  Ecuador,  and  possibly  Colombia, 
would  come  under  her  sway  by  whatever  combination 
of  a  peaceful  penetration,  rebellion,  and  political  cor- 
ruption might  be  called  for. 

uIn  holding  this  opinion  the  Prussian  autocrats  real- 
ise the  high  degree  of  commercial  and  political  pene- 
tration now  actually  accomplished  in  these  countries. 

"In  passing  it  is  worth  noting  that  in  his  'War/  pub- 
lished in  1906,  Klaus  Wagner  suggests  (p.  170),  that 
the  'inefficient'  non-German  population  of  South 
America  be  exported  by  Germany  to  reservations  in 
Africa,  'where  they  may  crawl  slowly  toward  the  peace* 
ful  death  of  weary  and  hopeless  senility.' 

"As  an  index,  sufficient  for  the  moment,  of  the  con* 
trol  Prussia  thought  she  had  over  Mexico,  and  inci* 
dentally  over  Central  America,  note  the  terse  proposal 
Herr  Zimmermann  made  to  Mexico  that  she  attack 
the  United  States  and  that  she,  as  the  agent  of  Ger- 
many, get  Japan  to  join  her  in  the  attack. 

"On  the  25th  of  May,  191 7,  Secretary  Franklin  K. 
Lane  said  that  Germany  'would  certainly  demand  from 
an  overwhelmed  England,  Canada  on  the  north  by  way 
of  indemnity.'  And  he  might  well  have  added  Ber- 
muda on  the  east  and  all  the  British  West  Indies  on  the 
south,  none  of  which  have  the  means  or  facilities  to 
conduct  a  successful  modern  defence  without  outside 
assistance. 

"To  the  Teutonic  mind  this  plan  for  an  actual  world 
dominion  was  as  axiomatic  as  that  two  and  two  make 
four; — provided  France  could  be  crushed,  Russia 
eliminated  and  then  Great  Britain  crushed." 


A  few  years  ago  the  very  statement  of  such  wild 
ambitions  would  have  seemed  like  the  vapourings  of 


70       UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

one  who  dreams.  But  as  almost  every  passing  month 
since  the  beginning  of  the  European  war  has  revealed 
some  new  and  incredible  indication  of  Prussian  ruth- 
lessness  and  underhanded  diplomacy  and  intrigue,  such 
plain  narration  of  German  aims  on  this  continent  is 
worthy  of  careful  thought. 

Two  things  are  inevitably  certain  regarding  the  Ger- 
man penetration  and  conquest  in  Latin  America.  First, 
it  never  will  happen  as  long  as  Great  Britain,  France 
and  the  United  States  retain  any  power  or  influence  to 
object,  and  second,  even  if  these  three  great  powers 
were  rendered  impotent  [a  thought  as  fantastic  as  are 
the  German  dreams  of  dominion]  Latin  America  with 
its  70,000,000  or  more  of  indigenous  and  partially  in- 
digenous races  is  too  large  and  too  distinctly  Latin 
either  to  be  colonised  by  Germans  or  to  be  assimilated 
with  peoples  whose  ideas  and  ideals  are  so  radically 
antipodal  to  their  own. 

Furthermore,  whatever  advantage  Germany  has 
gained  in  the  past  thirty  years  in  South  America  by 
reason  of  her  trade  and  well-laid  schemes,  is  being  di- 
minished daily  at  present  by  her  own  acts  and  her 
bungling,  thick-witted  diplomacy  and  propaganda. 
There  is  no  doubt  of  the  German  ambitions  in  this 
section.  There  is  also  no  doubt  of  her  great  influence, 
financial  and  industrial,  there.  But  the  eyes  of  the 
southern  Americans  are  being  opened  wide  to  the  facts, 
and  no  nations  on  earth  are  more  jealous  of  their  na- 
tional rights  and  territories  than  are  the  people  of 
these  Latin  American  lands.  Prussia  has  thus  become 
unwittingly  the  best  servant  that  a  real  Pan-American- 


THE  GERMANS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA       71 

ism  has  ever  possessed.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  is  no 
longer  a  mere  political  paper  shibboleth.  It  is  a  tie  to 
bind  together  in  mutual  safety  and  progress  the  free 
Americas. 


CHAPTER  IV 

BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  IN  PANAMA 

Nearly  every  intelligent  Peruvian  and  Ecuadorian  with 
whom  one  talks  believes  firmly  and  enthusiastically  that,  with 
the  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal,  his  country  is  going  to  start 
out  on  an  era  of  great  commercial  prosperity. 

Hiram  Bingham. 

ON  the  coat  of  arms  of  the  Republic  of  Panama  one 
reads :    "The  repudiation  of  war  and  homage  to 
the  arts  which  flourish  in  peace  and  in  labour." 

Over  the  section  called  "The  Canal  Zone"  there 
also  floats  an  ensign  reading,  "The  Land  Divided,  The 
World  United." 

The  possibilities  of  mankind,  commercial  and  moral, 
that  lie  wrapped  up  in  these  ideals  are  tremendous. 
The  Canal  will  cost  the  United  States  $400,000,000  in 
gold;  the  results  will  be  returned  not  in  money  only 
but  in  the  opportunity  rarely  offered  to  nations  and 
men  to  link  together  in  wide  and  deep  fraternal  unity 
the  two  Americas. 

To  achieve  such  vast  possibilities,  the  co-operation 
of  the  republic  through  whose  midst  this  waterway 
has  been  constructed,  is  essentially  vital. 

What  is  Panama? 

The  industrial  and  moral  possibilities  of  the  re- 
public merit  careful  study.     Here  is  a  territory  of  35,- 

72 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  IN  PANAMA      7S 

ooo  square  miles  and  a  population  that  is  estimated  by 
the  Panamanians  to  be  500,000  inhabitants,  containing 
the  mixed  strains  of  blood  from  Spain,  the  West  In- 
dies, the  North  American  Indians  and  from  a  half  a 
dozen  other  countries  of  the  old  and  new  worlds. 
Panama  has  a  coast  line  on  the  Atlantic  of  400  miles 
in  length,  and  on  the  Pacific  of  700  miles  and  its  ter- 
ritorial seas  are  rich  in  the  possibilities  of  fishing  in- 
dustries, which  as  yet  have  seen  but  a  comparatively 
meagre  development.  The  land  of  this  republic  runs 
from  sea  level  to  a  height  of  5,000  feet,  which  fur- 
nishes a  field  for  the  cultivation  of  products  ranging 
in  character  through  the  entire  climatic  register  be- 
tween the  torrid  and  temperate  zones.  Here  are  to 
be  found  regions  of  wonderful  natural  beauty  shining 
in  a  perpetual  spring  time;  wide  tracts  of  natural 
prairie  land  wait  for  the  development  of  stock  raising 
on  a  large  scale;  innumerable  rivers  traverse  the  coun- 
try on  both  watersheds  of  the  Cordilleras,  and  these 
are  capable  of  furnishing  water  power  for  the  com- 
ing agricultural  and  industrial  enterprises;  the  forests 
contain  no  less  than  140  different  varieties  of  building- 
timber  and  dyewoods,  and  many  of  the  vegetable  prod- 
ucts now  employed  in  various  industries  already  have 
been  discovered  in  these  regions. 

The  Republic  of  Panama  has  proved  her  possibilities 
in  the  cultivation  of  bananas,  sugar,  coffee,  cacao,  rub- 
ber and  cotton,  and  many  of  the  business  men  with 
whom  I  talked  claimed  for  Panama  a  soil  equally  capa- 
ble with  that  of  Cuba  and  Jamaica  for  the  production 
of  these  tropical  products. 

Few  countries  stand  geographically  in  such  happy 


M       UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

inter-oceanic  relations  to  commercial  traffic.  A  mar- 
ket for  the  supplies  needed  by  the  ever  increasing  num- 
ber of  ships  that  pass  through  the  canal,  belongs  nat- 
urally to  Panama.  No  other  country  can  be  made 
capable  of  competing  for  this  growing  trade.  The 
ship  upon  which  we  sailed  down  the  West  Coast,  a 
Peruvian  steamer,  filled  its  entire  order  for  fruits  and 
the  requirements  of  its  table  from  Panama  and  Colon, 
and  I  saw  a  half  dozen  other  ships  of  as  many  nation- 
alities waiting  to  restock  their  supplies  of  food  at  these 
Panamanian  ports.  The  vast  increase  of  trade  in  this 
line  alone  [which  is  certain  to  ensue  with  the  diverting 
to  the  canal  of  commerce  that  now  moves  across  the  Pa- 
cific to  the  United  States  and  Canadian  ports,  thence  by 
rail  overland  and  vice  versa],  together  with  the  in- 
crease in  traffic  from  all  parts  of  Asia  and  Africa  and 
Europe,  that  will  naturally  arise  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
will  convert  Panama  into  an  unrivalled  port  of  world 
marketing. 

How  shall  Panama  meet  her  possibilities? 

The  brief  narration  of  these  unusual  advantages  of 
location  and  soil-productivity  would  seem  to  make  of 
Panama  a  "Providential  Republic."  But  between  the 
enchanting  ideals  and  the  practical  possibilities  lies  a 
world  of  effort,  and  the  chief  factors  of  that  effort  are 
the  men  and  the  women  themselves. 

I  asked  the  representative  of  one  of  the  largest 
business  houses  of  the  United  States  what  he  considered 
to  be  the  first  need  in  building  up  a  lasting  trade  be- 
tween the  two  Americas. 

"The  first  essential,"  he  replied,  "is  to  get  strong 
men  to  come  down  here  prepared  to  settle  down  and 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  IN  PANAMA       75 

stay  in  the  country:  we  send  young  men  to  these  re- 
publics who  hardly  get  their  roots  down  than  they  are 
called  away  to  other  posts,  and  business  must  depend 
upon  mediocre  men  or  soldiers-of-fortune,  who  make 
a  poor  impression  upon  the  South  Americans,  and  who 
also  seldom  like  the  countries  as  fixed  abiding  places. 
You  can  not  do  much  to  help  business  among  any  people 
unless  you  like  that  people  and  the  land  they  inhabit. 
We  must  use  great  care  in  choosing  our  South  American 
business  pioneers." 

Somewhat  along  this  line  was  the  remark  of  the 
manager  of  one  of  the  large  banking  concerns  of  Pan- 
ama, a  man  who  for  many  years  has  lived  in  this  coun- 
try and  speaks  with  authority: 

"Panama  needs  just  now  trained  diplomats  and  men 
expert  in  the  different  departments  of  government;  we 
should  have  specialists  in  commerce,  fisheries,  agricul- 
ture and  finance,  and  the  business  of  development  of 
Panama  should  not  be  left  to  any  one  who  is  willing 
simply  to  come  down  here,  because  possibly  he  has 
succeeded  at  home  in  some  particular  line." 

This  gentleman  pointed  out  how  the  bungling  mis- 
takes of  men  in  Panama,  men  who  had  failed  to  realise 
the  temper  of  the  people,  had  "set  back  the  clock,"  as 
he  expressed  it,  and  made  it  harder  for  the  men  who 
were  foreigners  to  work  down  here.  One  man  had 
recently  been  in  Panama  as  an  official  government  rep- 
resentative, and  with  perfectly  good  intentions  had 
made  such  a  faux  pas  in  a  public  meeting  that  his  in- 
fluence with  the  Panamanians  had  been  destroyed  quite 
completely.  The  interesting  thing  about  this  incident 
lay  in  the  fact  that  the  official  does  not  know  that  he 


76       UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

made  a  bad  break,  and  the  people  were  too  polite  to 
tell  him. 

A  certain  American  army  officer  is  very  popular  with 
the  people  here,  quite  largely,  as  I  am  told,  because  he 
has  endeavoured  to  understand  the  customs  and  the 
temper  of  the  Panamanians.  "He  takes  off  his  hat 
when  he  meets  me,"  said  one  Panamanian,  as  he  spoke 
of  this  officer.  Another  referred  to  a  reception  given 
by  the  official.  When  the  President  of  Panama  ar- 
rived the  order  was  given  for  the  national  anthem  to 
be  played  and  H.  E.  was  announced  with  all  the  dignity 
belonging  to  the  Spanish-American  temperament. 

It  seems  a  bit  ridiculous  to  the  directness-loving 
American  to  change  his  attitude  toward  a  person  who 
may  be  his  close  friend  whenever  he  treats  with  him 
officially,  but  it  is  just  such  little  urbanities  that  win 
the  respect  of  the  Latin-American.  A  friend  of  mine 
who  has  lived  long  in  this  small  republic  told  me  of 
a  very  close  friend  of  his  who  was  recently  elected  as 
a  Government  official.  "Now,"  said  he,  "if  I  go  to 
call  upon  my  friend  upon  any  official  business  I  must 
take  care  to  put  on  a  silk  hat  and  a  frock  coat  and  go 
through  all  the  formalities  required  of  an  utter 
stranger." 

"Furthermore,"  said  my  informant,  "it  is  required 
of  us  down  here  in  the  case  of  the  death  of  a  business 
acquaintance  to  robe  ourselves  in  proper  black  cloth- 
ing and  not  only  attend  the  funeral,  but  also,  if  the 
deceased  is  a  personal  friend,  or  a  man  to  whom  hon- 
our is  due,  we  must  walk  all  the  way  to  the  cemetery 
in  the  procession.  Otherwise  we  would  make  mortal 
enemies  of  the  family." 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  IN  PANAMA      77 

The  northerner  who  is  impatient  and  abrupt  will 
always  come  to  grief  in  these  countries.  The  people 
are  simply  not  accustomed  to  doing  business  in  a  hurry 
and  they  never  separate  their  business  from  social 
courtesies  of  the  drawing-room.  One  successful 
American  voiced  a  very  important  need  of  those  who 
would  deal  with  these  people  of  Spanish  extraction 
when  he  said,  "Patience  is  not  a  virtue  simply,  it  is  a 
necessity  down  here." 

This  gentleman  went  on  to  say  that  while  it  is  im- 
portant for  the  northerner  to  be  patient  and  long  suf- 
fering with  many  of  those  traits  which  would  seem  in 
our  own  country  unpardonable,  there  are  times  when 
it  is  important  to  reveal  firmness  and  even  to  lose  one's 
temper.  His  advice  along  this  line  is  given  in  his  own 
words : 

"Don't. lose  your  temper  unless  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary, but  if  you  do  get  mad,  do  it  first — then  your 
Panamanian  will  rush  to  you  to  apologise  since  he  will 
think  he  has  said  something  to  hurt  your  feelings.  He 
may  not  know  what  he  said,  or  in  fact  he  may  have 
done  nothing  worthy  of  your  indignation;  nevertheless 
the  apology  will  always  be  forthcoming." 

In  other  words,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  inhabitants 
of  Panama  possess  feelings  that  lie  perilously  near 
the  surface.  In  some  cases  foreigners  will  tell  you  that 
it  is  necessary  to  treat  certain  classes  of  the  inhabitants 
with  whom  they  wish  to  have  fraternal  dealings  much 
as  they  would  treat  children,  and  be  willing  to  make 
many  allowances.     As  one  man  expressed  it: 

"You  must  treat  them  fairly,  never  lie  to  them,  never 
exploit  them,  and  always  be  on  the  watch  lest  you  hurt 


78        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

their  feelings,  and  at  the  same  time  you  must  keep  in 
mind  that  they  will  often  feel  quite  justified  in  deceiv- 
ing you,  and  even  in  treating  you  unfairly,  without  any 
evident  realisation  of  conscientious  scruples  in  the  mat- 
ter. 

In  treating  with  the  Panamanian  it  is  impossible  to 
take  for  granted  the  same  mental  and  moral  back- 
ground existing  among  the  people  in  the  United  States. 
You  are  dealing  with  another  historic  and  national 
consciousness,  and  the  sooner  the  northerner  realises 
this  fact,  the  more  readily  will  he  grasp  the  springs 
of  possible  success  in  business  dealings  with  these  peo- 
ple. 

There  is  another  important  point  to  be  remem- 
bered which  is  being  taught  by  experience  in  these 
Latin  countries  relative  to  trade  with  the  United 
States;  this  is  the  advantage  which  business  men  pos- 
sess who  do  not  need  to  trade  with  middlemen,  but, 
having  established  their  own  houses  in  South  America, 
are  able  to  deal  with  the  people  directly.  Firms  like 
the  Singer  Sewing  Machine,  Standard  Oil,  and  certain 
of  the  steel  companies,  for  example,  are  able  to  com- 
pete successfully  with  any  foreign  firm  because  of  the 
fact  that  they  have  established  headquarters  for  their 
specialty  in  the  South  American  republics.  South 
Americans  like  to  go  to  headquarters  for  their  goods. 
Few  Germans  or  Englishmen  can  successfully  compete 
with  one  of  these  American  firms  that  have  thus  es- 
tablished themselves  in  South  America,  since  the  Euro- 
pean agent  usually  has  a  dozen  or  more  things  which 
he  sells  for  his  German  or  English  firm,  and  naturally 
can  not  be  a  specialist  in  any  of  them. 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  IN  PANAMA      79 

Add  to  these  necessities  for  the  new  Panama  a  stable 
government  which  just  now  is  a  crying  need,  in  order 
to  assure  titles  for  property  and  protection  of  busi- 
ness; the  establishment  of  a  few  well  ordered  schools 
for  agriculture  and  technical  training;  the  constant  in- 
fusion of  men  from  the  colder  climates  who  will  join 
with  the  youth  of  this  fortunately  located  State  in 
building  firmly  the  basis  of  modern  institutions,  and 
some  of  the  most  vital  needs  of  Panama  will  be  met. 

As  Mr.  Duque  of  Panama  City  said  to  me  (and  he 
speaks  out  of  an  experience  of  more  than  thirty  years 
in  this  country) ,  "the  Panamanian  lacks  ambition  in  a 
country  where  living  has  been  comparatively  easy;  he 
needs  to  be  taught  that  there  is  something  more  worth 
while  than  to  be  a  cheap  politician ;  we  have  everything 
here  in  Panama  to  do  with  and  are  just  waiting  for  the 
quality  of  manhood  and  a  certain  necessary  amount  of 
capital  to  make  this  country  really  great." 

There  is,  however,  a  political  Panama  which  must 
be  understood  by  Americans,  who  go  down  to  these 
parts  on  commerce  bent.  It  was  of  this  political- 
minded  people  of  which  I  was  thinking  especially  as  I 
entered  the  gates  of  the  President's  palace  to  talk  with 
the  head  of  this  republic. 

It  was  one  of  those  days  in  May  when  the  tempera- 
ture is  certainly  tropical  and  the  humidity  registered 
at  94. 

We  had  heard  many  rumours  concerning  political 
unrest  in  Panama,  and  several  persons  had  told  me  that 
a  revolution  was  imminent. 

"It  isn't  that  either  side  would  expect  to  accomplish 
anything  in  particular  by  a  revolution,"  said  a  busi- 


80       UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ness  man  of  Panama  City,  "but  the  people  haven't  had 
a  revolution  for  some  time,  and  they  seem  to  feel  that 
it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  stir  things  up  periodically." 

One  does  not  remain  long  in  this  part  of  the  world 
without  realising  that  business  is  closely  related  to  poli- 
tics, and  that  one  of  the  chief  obstructions  to  business 
on  a  large  scale  in  this  republic  has  been  the  lack  of 
confidence  in  the  stability  of  Government  and  the  dif- 
ficulty associated  with  laws  regarding  titles  of  land 
and  property.  For  fifty-seven  years  before  the  United 
States  came  to  the  Canal  Zone  there  had  been  an  aver- 
age of  a  revolution  a  year,  or,  to  speak  more  exactly, 
fifty-three  revolutions  in  fifty-seven  years.  The  re- 
sults of  these  uprisings  have  not  been  very  serious  as 
a  rule,  a  few  policemen  have  been  killed  while  the 
aristocracy  have  usually  found  it  convenient  to  have 
engagements  indoors  during  these  stormy  periods. 

On  the  day  in  which  I  talked  with  the  President  a 
political  meeting  was  held  in  the  streets  of  Panama 
City  at  which  the  administration  was  severely  flayed 
and  the  President  was  criticised  for  his  endeavour  to 
prevent  the  meeting:  he  was  freely  criticised  as  a  "Dic- 
tator" and  the  enemy  of  free  speech. 

Such  denunciations  are  not  taken  very  seriously  by 
the  people,  for  September  and  the  elections  were  just 
ahead  and  these  always  bring  about  fierce  rivalry  be- 
tween the  "ins"  and  the  "outs."  I  was  told  that  the 
two  candidates  of  the  respective  parties  had  been 
asked  to  resign  in  favour  of  a  man  who  would  head  a 
new  or  third  party  in  order  to  bring  about  a  united 
republic.  It  is  rumoured  also  that  the  third  would-be 
President  had  promised  to  divide  the  spoils  with  the 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  IN  PANAMA      81 

other  two  candidates  if  such  arrangements  could  be 
made.  It  seems  that  the  plan  did  not  please  the  heads 
of  the  two  parties  who  had  already  spent  considerable 
money  for  their  campaign  and  both  of  whom  felt 
that  they  had  too  much  to  lose  by  the  combination. 
As  in  other  parts  of  South  America,  people  follow 
personalities,  rather  than  parties. 

The  "outs"  say  that  they  would  not  be  averse  to  in- 
tervention by  the  United  States.  This  would  doubt- 
less mean  that  the  party  in  power  would  be  removed 
and  their  political  antagonists  would  have  a  chance. 

However  this  may  be,  the  lot  of  Dr.  Poras  would 
not  seem  to  be  an  enviable  one  as  far  as  the  allegiance 
of  many  of  his  people  are  concerned.  In  speaking  of 
him  a  prominent  banker  said,  "Every  man  in  politics 
makes  some  enemies,  but  the  present  President  of 
Panama  made  the  mistake  of  making  everybody  his 
enemy." 

The  pleasant-faced,  courteous  Spanish-looking  gen- 
tleman of  fifty-eight  or  sixty  into  whose  presence  I  was 
ushered  would  hardly  give  any  one  the  impression  of 
an  autocrat.  The  President  may  have  enemies,  but 
the  men  who  were  taking  leave  of  him  as  I  entered, 
would  scarcely  give  the  visitor  the  idea  that  they  were 
his  foes.  One  man  was  standing  with  his  arms  around 
the  President's  waist,  and  taxing  the  Spanish  language 
for  terms  in  which  to  express  his  admiration  and  fealty. 
To  one  just  arrived  from  the  North,  the  scene  was  a 
bit  ludicrous ;  who,  with  the  wildest  imagination,  would 
picture  the  visitor  to  President  Wilson  holding  him 
firmly  around  the  waist  while  he  kissed  him  warmly 
upon  both  cheeks  ?     This  is  Oxily  one  of  the  many  signs 


82        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

constantly  greeting  the  traveller  from  northern  lati- 
tudes, assuring  him  that  he  has  passed  from  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  world  into  the  land  of  the  Latin  temperament. 
I  found  Dr.  Poras  exceedingly  agreeable  and  willing 
to  speak  of  the  needs  and  the  accomplishments  of  Pan- 
ama. To  my  first  question,  "What  is  the  greatest 
present  requirement  of  the  Republic?"  he  answered: 

"Banks  are  our  greatest  need.  We  should  have  a 
big  bank  which  would  give  long  credits  and  demand 
small  interest  for  the  benefit  of  the  agricultural  class 
especially.  As  a  matter  of  fact,"  said  he,  "our  agri- 
cultural population  possesses  very  small  holdings  and 
must  do  their  work  on  a  limited  scale.  They  need  our 
help  financially;  and  the  banking  systems  used  in  the 
North  are  not  always  adaptable  to  our  people. 

"This  country  of  Panama,"  continued  Dr.  Poras,  "is 
a  rich  country  and  has  hardly  begun  to  be  developed. 
Its  possibilities  in  sugar,  bananas,  cocoanuts,  and  in 
mining,  have  not  been  generally  realised.  Only  a  very- 
small  part  of  the  area  of  the  country  is  now  under 
cultivation.  Our  great  need  is  capital  to  assure  the 
opening  of  agricultural  business  on  a  larger  scale." 

Dr.  Poras  then  spoke  of  the  new  railroad  which  had 
been  built  during  his  administration,  meeting  another 
need  of  present  day  Panama.  This  is  a  three-foot 
gauge  steam  railway  in  the  Province  of  Chiriqui  and 
extends  from  Pedregal  on  the  Pacific  Coast  to  the  town 
of  David  and  thence  to  the  town  of  Boquete  with  a 
total  length  of  about  fifty-two  miles.  In  spite  of  the 
enthusiasm  of  Dr.  Poras  concerning  this  road  which 
has  cost  Panama  so  heavily,  the  hard-headed  business 
man  of  the  city  will  tell  you  that  it  is  a  road  that  be- 
gins nowhere  and  goes  nowhere,  and  if  one-quarter  of 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  IN  PANAMA      83 

the  money  had  been  spent  upon  the  building  of  good 
country  roads  for  the  transportation  of  crops,  the  re- 
sult would  have  been  far  more  beneficial  to  Panama. 

"Is  your  education  in  Panama  coming  on  satisfac- 
torily?" I  asked. 

Dr.  Poras  then  referred  to  the  statistics  which 
showed  that  from  a  total  of  323  schools  with  an  at- 
tendance of  15,000  in  191 2,  the  number  of  schools  had 
increased  in  19 14  to  518  with  an  attendance  of  23,445. 
He  also  spoke  with  much  interest  of  the  two  agricul- 
tural schools  recently  founded,  a  normal  school  for 
girls  and  a  professional  school  for  women. 

The  National  Institute,  which  is  the  highest  educa- 
tional institution  of  the  republic,  has  established  a 
commercial  section,  and  in  19 13  a  School  of  Painting 
was  established. 

Dr.  Poras  was  much  interested  in  his  work  among 
the  Indians  of  Panama  with  whom  he  has  been  suc- 
cessful, not  only  "conquering"  them  with  friendship 
but  also  in  establishing  among  them  schools  and  other 
means  of  civilisation.  He  showed  me  pictures  of  most 
beautiful  islands  covered  with  waving  palms  on  which 
some  of  the  tribes  live,  together  with  photographs  in 
which  he  appeared  with  the  chiefs.  He  exhibited  all 
the  pleasure  of  a  child  in  showing  me  these  photographs 
and  said,  "There  is  only  one  chief  whom  I  have  not 
conquered,  but  I  shall  subdue  him,  through  the  force 
of  friendship."  The  President  was  inclined  to  dwell 
at  length  upon  this  subject  of  the  Indians  since  it  was 
the  one  topic  upon  which  evidently  he  was  not  criticised, 
and  Dr.  Poras,  who  is  a  clever  man,  knew  that  at  this 
period,  virtually  everything  he  did  was  wrong. 


84        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  I  drew  him  from  this  in- 
nocuous subject  of  the  Indians  to  the  important  subject 
of  politics  and  government. 

"Do  you  expect  re-election  as  President?"  I  asked. 

"No,"  was  the  reply,  "according  to  our  laws  the 
President  can  not  be  re-elected  for  the  term  immedi- 
ately following  his  own,  unless  he  resigns  his  office 
eighteen  months  prior  to  the  election." 

It  was  brought  out  that  the  President's  cabinet  at 
present  consists  of  a  Secretary  of  Government  and 
Justice  who  has  charge  of  the  administration  of  the 
provinces,  municipalities,  police  force,  city  fire  depart- 
ments, post  offices,  telegraph  systems,  etc.  The  courts 
of  justice,  notaries,  the  penal  institutions,  and  all  mat- 
ters relating  to  the  administration  of  justice  are  also 
under  this  Department's  jurisdiction.  It  would  seem 
that  this  Secretary  is  a  very  much  over-worked  man, 
and  there  would  appear  also  to  be  a  reason  for  the 
fact  that  his  title  has  been  known  to  be  written  by  his 
opponents  as,  the  "Secretary  of  the  Government  In- 
justice." 

Then  there  is  the  Department  of  Foreign  Relations 
having  charge  of  the  diplomatic  corps,  interrational 
boundary  disputes,  congresses  and  conventions.  It  is 
this  Department  that  bears  the  brunt  of  the  failure  of 
the  Panama  Exposition  where  over  half  a  million  dol- 
lars was  expended,  seemingly  to  small  comparative  pur- 
pose. As  one  citizen  expressed  it,  "In  the  first  place 
we  didn't  have  anything  but  a  few  bananas  and  cocoa- 
nuts  to  exhibit,  and  if  the  United  States  hadn't  stepped 
in  and  helped  us  out,  it  would  have  been  a  perfect 
fizzle." 


BUSINESS  AND  POLITICS  IN  PANAMA      85 

The  other  three  cabinet  officials  are  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  Secretary  of  Public  Instruction,  and 
the  Secretary  of  Fomento  (Promotion). 

Panama  has  no  army,  but  its  place  is  taken  by  a 
national  police  corps  numbering  one  thousand  officers 
and  men.  A  revenue  cutter  is  maintained.  It  is  a 
steam  launch  of  454  tons. 

I  found  the  people  considerably  stirred  over  the 
demand  of  the  United  States  for  the  disarmament  of 
the  police  force.  The  objection  was  not  so  much  to 
the  disarmament  as  to  the  somewhat  abrupt  manner 
in  which  it  was  accomplished. 

When  I  asked  the  President  what  he  thought  about 
this  disarmament,  he  said, 

"Down  here,  we  think  Latin  and  we  speak  Spanish. 
You  think  Anglo-Saxon  and  you  speak  English.  The 
result  is  we  don't  understand  your  words — and 
methods"  (and  his  Excellency  smiled)  "and  you  do 
not  understand  our  thoughts."  He  then  went  on  with 
quite  a  treatise  on  the  subject  of  the  differences  between 
the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Latin  temperament.  It  was 
a  very  delightful  conversation,  but  when  later  I  began 
to  jot  down  my  notes  and  found  that  the  President  had 
beautifully  refrained  from  answering  any  question 
directly,  I  had  a  graphic  demonstration  of  one  differ- 
ence between  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Latin  habit  of 
mind. 

It  is  this  difference  in  the  point  of  view  which  is  re- 
sponsible for  much  of  the  difficulty  and  lack  of  mutual 
understanding  between  the  peoples  of  the  United  States 
and  the  Central  American  republics.  Pan-American- 
ism means  benefits  both  ways,  and  many  of  the  people 


86        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

in  Panama  will  tell  you  that  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the 
United  States  will  get  the  benefit  of  the  new  trade,  but 
they  are  always  asking,  "What  do  we  get?" 

The  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal  which  has  brought 
Panama  into  the  great  avenue  of  international  business 
and  politics  has  made  it  increasingly  necessary  that  we 
strive  to  find  out  what  the  Panamanian  is  thinking,  and 
how  his  interests  as  well  as  our  own  can  best  be  served 
in  the  carrying  out  of  the  new  order  of  world  com- 
merce. One  can  not  pass  through  the  Canal  and  be- 
hold the  lines  of  ships  going  before  and  following 
through  the  great  locks,  ships  flying  flags  of  many 
diverse  nationalities,  without  realising  that  new  link 
between  the  nations  which  is  bound  to  affect  far-reach- 
ingly  the  history  of  future  generations. 

The  Canal  has  tapped  the  commerce  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  valued  at  present  at  $4,000,000,000.  It  has 
also  introduced  directly  to  a  world  heretofore  far  away, 
1,000,000,000  population  living  tributary  to  this  ocean. 
This  strategic  point  is  quite  sure  to  be  a  pivotal  factor 
in  our  own  political  and  commercial  life.  It  is  worth 
our  pains  to  know  what  kind  of  people  these  are,  as 
well  as  the  firms  most  closely  interested  in  our  under- 
takings in  this  region. 

"We  have  a  word  which  is  all  powerful  down  here," 
said  a  Panamanian — that  word  is  "simpatico." 


CHAPTER  V 

TWO   MOUNTAIN   REPUBLICS — THE    ECUADORIAN   AND 
BOLIVIAN 

AS  the  traveller  looks  out  of  his  cabin  window  in  the 
early  morning  in  the  Guayaquil  river  he  sees  all 
about  him  small  fishing  boats  at  anchor.  There  is  no 
sign  of  fishing  and  upon  inquiry  he  is  informed  that 
those  boats  filled  with  listless  Ecuadorians  are  waiting 
for  the  turn  of  the  tide  to  carry  them  down  the  river. 
It  is  easier  than  rowing,  and  time  is  no  factor  in  the 
life  of  a  fisherman  in  this  land  of  Pizarro. 

These  anchored  fishers  waiting  for  a  favourable  cur- 
rent impressed  me  as  a  fitting  picture  in  miniature  of 
the  people  of  this  country  still  remindful  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  There  are  here  one  and  a  half  million 
of  inhabitants — Indians,  Mestizos,  Spaniards — all 
waiting — waiting — waiting  for  the  turning  of  the 
tide,  without  worry  meanwhile,  and  seemingly  quite 
as  indifferent  regarding  the  matter  as  were  their  fathers 
and  ancestors  for  the  past  five  hundred  years. 

Slowly  we  steamed  up  the  river  until  before  us 
in  the  blazing  equatorial  sun  lay  the  straggling  port 
city  of  Guayaquil,  which  enjoys  the  unenviable  distinc- 
tion of  being  the  "City  of  the  Yellow  Jack,"  perhaps 
the  most  unhealthy  port  of  entry  to  any  country  of 
modern  times.     A  wide  circling  arc  of  one  and  two 

87 


83        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

storied  buildings  lurch  down  to  a  stream  as  muddy  as 
the  Ganges,  while  half  clothed  natives  swarm  along  the 
unkempt  banks  of  the  river  at  the  mouths  of  the  nar- 
row streets.  The  ship  is  carried  so  near  the  river-side 
that  one  can  see  the  gesticulating  inhabitants  about  the 
long  market  place,  and  their  confused  murmur  of  voices 
greet  one  over  the  current  like  a  warning  cry  of  "Un- 
clean"— a  fateful  welcome  to  these  lowlands  of  the 
bubonic  plague  and  the  stegomyia,  the  fever-laden 
mosquito.  To  be  sure  it  was  the  first  of  June,  the  be- 
ginning of  the  dry  season,  when  the  death-dealing  mos- 
quito is  supposed  to  have  left  the  water  front,  that  this 
scene  unfolded  before  our  eyes,  yet  the  miasmic  shadow 
of  the  place  seemed  to  rivet  the  consciousness  with  a 
spell  that  not  even  the  rounded  hills  that  sentinel  the 
town  and  the  chiming  towers  of  the  Catholic  steeples 
were  sufficient  to  dispel.  One  recalls  the  reported  say- 
ing of  the  short  sighted  Guayaquil  merchants  to  the 
effect:  "Sanitation  will  tempt  the  'gringo'  to  come  in 
and  wrest  our  business  from  us.  Let  our  friend, 
•Yellow  Jack,'  stay." 

I  did  not  wonder  that  a  business  man  from  the 
"States,"  who  had  sailed  thousands  of  miles  to  make 
inspection  of  mining  properties  in  Ecuador,  confided 
to  me  as  he  stepped  down  the  gang  plank  to  the  small 
boat  that  was  to  take  him  ashore,  that  he  was  tempted 
to  turn  about  and  go  home.  Indeed,  if  one  did  not 
realise  that  beyond  these  quarantined  hot  lowlands  lay 
116,000  square  miles  of  fertile  plateaus  and  snow- 
capped Andes,  or  think  of  Quito,  the  capital  city  with 
its  75,000  inhabitants,  calling  one  up  there  among  the 
mountains  9,371  feet  above  the  sea,  he  would  hesitate. 


TWO  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  89 

Yet  one  wishes  usually  to  see  the  vast  cacao  groves 
which  belong  to  those  equatorial  altitudes  thousands  of 
feet  above  the  Pacific,  and  the  unique  industry  of  Ecua- 
dor in  vegetable  ivory  yielding  yearly  for  this  country 
and  the  world  20,000  tons.  Ecuador's  $15,000,000 
of  exports  of  coffee,  her  rubber,  Panama  hats  and  a 
dozen  other  native  products,  and  her  grandeur  of 
mountain  scenery  weigh  in  the  balance  in  her  favour; 
otherwise  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  American  traveller 
would  sail  up  the  Guayas  river  that  laves  the  wharves 
of  Guayaquil,  the  largest  seaport  town  of  Ecuador, 
where  40,000  people  live  in  squalid  forgetfulness  of 
the  twentieth  century.     . 

The  modern  Ecuador  can  be  understood  only  by  a 
glance  at  the  historic  background  far  in  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century  when  Francisco  Pizarro,  hav- 
ing conquered  the  great  Inca  Empire  and  executed  the 
Inca  king,  turned  to  Ecuador  whose  people  resembled 
in  social  and  political  institutions  the  Incas.  On  Dec. 
6th,  1534,  the  Spaniards  entered  Quito  as  conquerors, 
Pizarro  was  appointed  Governor  of  the  province  and 
the  usual  Spanish  custom  of  feudal  times  was  begun  of 
dividing  the  land  among  themselves  and  the  establish- 
ment of  feudal  estates. 

After  several  rearrangements,  by  which  Ecuador  was 
included  first  in  the  vice-royalty  of  Peru,  and  also  an- 
nexed to  the  vice-royalty  of  Granada,  a  movement  for 
independence  began  on  August  10th,  1809,  when  the 
citizens  of  Quito  deposed  the  Spanish  governor  and 
established  a  revolutionary  junta.  Although  the 
Spaniards  regained  control,  they  lost  it  afterward  in 
1820,  when  the  citizens  of  Guayaquil  declared  their 


90        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

independence.  In  1 830  a  constitutional  assembly  was 
held  proclaiming  the  Constitution  of  the  Republic  of 
Ecuador. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  country  has  been  called 
a  republic  for  nearly  a  hundred  years,  the  influence  of 
this  ancient  Spanish  regime  is  apparent,  revealing  itself 
in  many  ways.  Three  centuries  of  rule  make  a  decided 
print  on  any  country,  and  the  rule  of  Spain  was 
characterised  by  certain  things  that  cling  with  tenacity 
to  the  Latin  nations  of  South  America. 

The  whole  colonisation  policy  of  the  Spaniards  dif- 
fered radically  from  that  of  the  settlers  in  New  Eng- 
land and  Virginia.  They  were  not  actuated  by  a  de- 
sire to  secure  either  political  or  religious  freedom,  nor 
were  they  especially  interested  in  the  industrial  and 
agricultural  development  of  their  colonies.  To  the 
Spaniards,  any  work  which  might  be  considered  in  the 
least  menial  was  not  looked  upon  with  favour,  and  the 
natives  early  were  placed  in  the  position  of  slaves. 
To-day  the  same  attitude  of  mind  prevails  and  the  for- 
eigner who  so  far  forgets  himself  as  to  carry  his  own 
bag  or  suitcase  in  Ecuador  loses  caste  with  the  aristoc- 
racy. 

Spain  brought  to  South  America  the  spirit  of  the 
Middle  Ages ;  her  sons  were  not  colonisers  but  adven- 
turers who  came  to  the  New  World  in  search  of  gold 
and  an  easy  means  of  existence.  The  religion  which 
they  brought  with  them  was  of  that  narrow  type  found 
in  Spain  in  the  era  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and  it 
carried  with  it  all  the  bigotry  and  disregard  of  human 
rights  that  characterised  the  Inquisition  period.  The 
union  of  the  Church  and  State  in  these  new  lands  stood 


rLAS  BALSAS"  REED  BOATS,  LAKE  TITICACA 


TWO  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  91 

for  the  apportionment  of  the  lands  to  the  privileged 
classes,  the  multiplication  of  priests,  friars  and  nuns, 
and  instead  of  the  inauguration  of  equal  rights,  there 
was  instituted  the  rule,  or  misrule,  in  which  the  ele- 
ments of  force,  bribery,  intrigue,  cruelty,  treachery  and 
authoritative  religion  formed  the  doubtful  weapons  of 
sovereignty  and  progress. 

The  policy  of  the  rule  was  well  expressed  in  the 
words  of  one  of  the  Mexican  viceroys: 

"Let  the  people  of  these  dominions  learn  once  for 
all  that  they  were  born  to  be  silent  and  to  obey,  and 
not  to  discuss  or  to  have  opinions  in  political  affairs." 

Trade  with  foreign  countries  was  entirely  prohibited 
and  all  mineral  wealth  was  heavily  taxed.  The  native 
could  not  enter  into  business  without  the  consent  of  an 
official,  and  for  a  man  to  seek  a  free  field  for  his  labour 
was  held  to  be  treason.  Education  was  denied  by  these 
Spanish  conquerors,  and  the  local  governors  joined  with 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities  in  a  settled  system  of  down- 
right subjection  by  force  and  chicanery  which  has  af- 
fected later  generations.  Immigrants  were  forbidden 
by  Spain  and  not  until  comparatively  recent  years  has 
there  been  infused  into  these  South  American  countries 
any  great  amount  of  new  blood. 

To  be  sure  a  hundred  years  has  passed  over  lands 
like  Ecuador  since  such  deadening  ideals  of  civilisation 
had  their  sway.  But  not  in  one  century  does  a  nation 
pass  out  from  beneath  the  yoke  of  those  ways  of 
thought  and  custom  which  undercut  initiative,  stifle  the 
conscience,  degrade  the  thought  of  honest  labour,  and 
deprive  the  individual  of  human  rights. 


92        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

It  takes  time  to  develop  republics  out  of  elements 
worked  upon  for  generations  by  a  system  of  selfish 
mediaeval  feudalism.  "It  is  a  travesty  on  the  word," 
said  a  leading  foreign  business  man  for  many  years 
in  Ecuador,  "to  call  this  country  a  republic" :  and  then 
he  told  me  for  an  hour  instances  of  autocratic  rule  and 
undemocratic  customs  which  had  all  the  earmarks  of 
monarchical  domination. 

It  must  be  learned  that  self-government,  the  appeal 
to  the  ballot  instead  of  to  arms  in  settling  ordinary  dis- 
putes, and  the  building  up  of  self-confidence  and  self- 
reliance,  are  matters  that  cannot  be  inaugurated  over 
night  in  a  mass  meeting,  where  a  Constitution  is  agreed 
upon  with  high  sounding  words.  Republics  develop 
from  within  outward  and  not  in  the  opposite  direction, 
and  the  spirit  of  a  Constitution  is  far  more  important 
than  its  letter  when  it  comes  to  the  making  of  demo- 
cratic states. 

Remembering  these  days  of  checkered  history  we 
were  not  astonished  when  upon  asking  a  prominent 
Ecuadorian  what  he  considered  to  be  the  chief  need  of 
the  people  at  present;  he  replied,  "Discipline,  personal 
and  national  discipline." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  about  40  per  cent  of  the 
people  of  Ecuador  are  Indians,  50  per  cent  mixed 
Indians  and  Spanish  or  mestizos,  and  only  about  2  per 
cent  of  the  population  are  pure  Spanish  or  white. 
Many  think  that  this  mixture  of  races  has  brought 
down  the  level,  as  the  Indian  is  usually  considered  a 
more  desirable  worker  than  the  mestizo,  and  compares 
favourably  with  him  in  the  matter  of  morals. 

As  to  education,  the  authorities  give  the  following 


TWO  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  93 

facts :  primary  education  is  maintained  at  the  cost  of  the 
state,  and  school  attendance  is  compulsory.  The  Re- 
public reports  an  attendance  of  100,000  pupils  in  1,000 
public  schools  of  primary  grade.  There  are  35  secon- 
dary schools,  and  somewhat  recently  the  government 
has  established  9  higher  schools  with  commercial  and 
technical  schools  in  Quito  and  Guayaquil.  One  finds 
at  Quito  also  an  old  university,  while  faculties  for 
higher  training  can  be  found  at  Cuenca  and  at  Guaya- 
quil. It  is  fair  to  truth,  however,  to  state  that  all  that 
glitters  is  not  gold  in  educational  government  reports 
in  Ecuador. 

About  one  in  sixteen  persons  are  reported  to  be  en- 
rolled in  school.  It  is  evident  that  the  children  of  the 
Indians  are  getting  practically  no  schooling,  while  one 
will  be  informed  that  possibly  one  fourth  of  the  children 
of  the  peons  are  receiving  some  kind  of  instruction.  It 
is  the  law  in  Ecuador  that  the  master  having  ten  or 
more  families  of  labourers  on  his  estate  must  maintain 
for  them  a  school,  but  in  this  case,  as  in  others,  the  law 
is  not  always  obeyed.  As  in  East  India,  the  parents 
are  loath  to  give  up  their  children  for  school  attend- 
ance, especially  outside  the  towns,  where  the  parents 
have  little  regard  for  education  and  are  living  in  an 
ignorance  at  times  startling  to  those  unacquainted  with 
the  backwardness  of  some  of  these  states.  The  shuck- 
ing of  ivory  nuts,  and  the  earnings  therefrom,  usually 
outweigh  the  attraction  of  the  schools. 

Of  Ecuador,  as  of  many  another  country,  one  may 
speak  in  terms  that  seem  at  first  contradictory.  It  is 
an  equatorial  land;  indeed,  it  takes  its  name  from  the 
equator,  but  in  its  highland  plateaus  where  nine-tenths 


94        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  the  population  live,  the  weather  is  cold  enough  for 
winter  clothing.  Guayaquil  lying  in  the  low,  shore 
levels  is  anything  but  desirable  from  a  physical  point 
of  view,  while  Quito  and  much  of  the  domain  lying  a 
mile  and  a  half  above  the  sea  in  and  between  the  paral- 
lel ranges  of  the  Andes,  furnishes  as  beautiful  scenery 
as  one  could  wish,  with  dry  and  bracing  mountain  air. 

One  finds  here  a  very  uncertain  government  and  an 
undisciplined  and  unsteady  people,  yet  a  commercial 
condition  worthy  of  note  in  at  least  three  great  indus- 
tries. The  traveller  who  walks  along  the  busy  water- 
front of  Guayaquil  passes  warehouses  filled  with  piles 
of  cacao  bags  as  high  as  the  buildings  themselves,  and 
he  is  told  that  this  industry  in  itself  amounts  to  between 
eight  and  ten  million  dollars  a  year  in  exports,  while 
Ecuador's  trade  in  tagua  nuts,  or  vegetable  ivory,  leads 
the  world,  with  an  output  reaching  upward  to  two  mil- 
lion dollars  yearly. 

The  palm  producing  the  ivory  nuts  is  found  chiefly 
on  the  Pacific  coast  of  Ecuador,  and  grows  from  ten  to 
twenty  feet  in  height  bearing  at  the  base  of  the  leaves 
a  cluster  of  nuts  resembling  cocoanuts.  Each  nut  con- 
tains seeds  approximating  the  size  of  small  potatoes, 
but  fine  in  grain  and  approximating  real  ivory  in  char- 
acteristic. It  is  of  this  material  that  most  of  the 
buttons  of  the  world  are  made. 

American  enterprise  is  now  entering  Ecuador,  one 
of  the  large  New  York  export  houses,  having  40  offices 
and  2,000  men  working  on  the  west  coast  of  South 
America,  being  well  represented  here. 

It  is  only  a  matter  of  time,  hygienic  improvement, 
and  patient  modernisation  of  roads,  people  and  govern- 


TWO  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  95 

ment,  that  keep  the  door  into  Ecuador  still  half  closed 
— considerable  "matter"  one  admits — yet  the  for- 
eigners in  this  equatorial  republic  have  hopes. 

It  is  the  instability  of  government  especially,  that 
handicaps  the  present  day  Ecuador.  The  Constitution 
is  liberal;  foreigners  enjoy  the  same  rights  and  civil 
guarantees  as  do  the  citizens  of  the  country,  and  free- 
dom of  thought,  worship  and  the  press  is  given.  It  is 
an  inducement  to  trade  to  find  that  aliens  may  acquire 
property,  public  lands,  and  hold  the  right  to  establish 
banking  institutions  under  the  same  conditions  with 
Ecuadorians.  It  is  also  worthy  of  note  that  the  Presi- 
dent of  this  republic,  as  in  most  of  the  South  American 
states,  is  elected  for  a  term  of  four  years  by  direct  vote, 
and  cannot  be  re-elected  except  after  the  lapse  of  two 
intervening  terms. 

The  government  is  supported  by  a  permanent  army 
consisting  of  upwards  of  7,500  officers  and  men,  and  a 
first  and  second  series  of  reserves  of  100,000  men. 
There  are  also  mining  and  torpedo  sections,  a  sani- 
tary section,  and  a  telegraph  and  telephone  corps — all 
created  in  19 10.  The  navy  of  Ecuador  consists  of  one 
cruiser,  the  Cotopaxi,  a  torpedo  destroyer,  the  Bolivar, 
of  1000  tons;  one  torpedo  boat,  the  Tar  qui,  of  56  tons; 
three  launches  and  one  auxiliary  vessel,  with  a  total 
personnel  of  about  200  men. 

There  is  maintained  a  telegraph  system  of  3,500 
miles  with  188  officers;  two  telephone  systems  with  400 
subscribers  each  and  150  post  offices.  In  19 13  the 
postal  money  order  system  was  installed  in  the  principal 
offices  and  the  parcel  post  system  is  in  vogue. 

Despite  these  advances,  Ecuador  has  much  to  learn 


96        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

in  the  use  of  modern  contrivances.  The  Constitution 
has  not  yet  learned  to  "march."  The  people  have  not 
yet  discovered  that  revolutions  do  not  usually  pay,  yet 
some  of  these  revolutions  in  recent  years  have  been 
little  more  than  opera  bouffe.  A  railroad  official  in 
describing  to  me  a  recent  revolution  said  that  he  was 
ordered  by  the  government  to  have  ready  a  special 
train  to  carry  General  A and  his  army  which  con- 
sisted of  fifty-four  men.  He  gave  them  the  train  and 
shortly  afterwards  another  order  was  received  to  have 

ready  a  second  train  for  General  B and  his  army 

of  fifty-seven  men.  The  trains  were  made  ready  and 
the  government  troops  departed  for  the  battlefield. 
They  met  the  revolutionists'  army  in  a  valley,  the 
enemy  to  the  established  government  consisting  of  the 
somewhat  unique  combination  of  seventy-eight  officers 
and  three  privates.  A  battle  ensued  lasting  for  several 
hours  when  six  men  were  killed  and  fifteen  wounded, 
the  government  troops  achieving  a  glorious  triumph, 
and,  returning  home,  received  the  admiring  uvivas"  of 
the  populace,  whom  they  had  so  bravely  defended. 

One  soon  is  impressed  with  the  fact  that  the  Ecua- 
dorian loves  a  uniform  and  gold  lace  quite  as  much  as 
the  Japanese.  This  is  especially  evident  among  the 
army  officers.  We  were  told  of  how  a  Paris  house 
received  some  time  since  an  order  for  uniforms  for  the 
army  of  Ecuador.  The  head  of  the  Parisian  clothing 
establishment  understood  the  order  with  the  exception 
of  one  set  of  Ecuadorian  regalia  that  was  to  be  covered 
almost  completely  with  gold  lace,  braid,  epaulettes, 
etc.  He  called  on  the  representatives  having  the  mat- 
ter in  charge  and  said: 


TWO  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  97 

"I  understand  all  the  other  uniforms  but  this  one; 
what  branch  of  the  service  is  to  use  this  pretentious 
uniform?" 

The  representative  answered,  "Oh,  that  is  for  the 
members  of  our  secret  service." 

Although  the  laws  of  the  republic  look  excellent  on 
paper,  their  execution  halts  badly  at  times.  A  for- 
eigner who  has  lived  many  years  in  Ecuador  informed 
me  of  the  frightful  "graft"  in  the  customs  revenue. 
He  said,  "If  I  could  have  charge  of  the  customs  for 
three  years,  I  would  be  able  to  save  for  the  government 
fifty  per  cent  more  than  they  are  now  receiving,  and  in 
addition,  if  I  could  be  allowed  the  surplus,  make  for 
myself  a  munificent  fortune." 

There  seems  to  be  a  way  to  get  around  the  revenue, 
and  it  is  said  all  along  the  coast  that  one  reason  that 
the  Germans  can  crowd  out  all  competition  in  the  ivory 
nut  industry,  is  because  of  their  understanding  of  the 
methods  of  satisfying  officials,  thus  relieving  themselves 
from  paying  the  scheduled  duty. 

An  American  told  me  of  his  experience  in  getting  a 
large  consignment  of  supplies  from  America  upon 
which  he  paid  the  regular  duty.  A  Guayaquil  mer- 
chant criticised  him  for  being  so  foolish  as  to  pay  the 
full  duty.  "But,"  said  the  American,  "it  is  the  thing 
to  do."  "Yes,  perhaps  so,"  said  the  Ecuadorian,  "but 
no  one  does  it  here." 

In  these  tendencies,  as  in  so  many  other  departments 
of  Ecuadorian  enterprise  and  activity,  the  historic  tra- 
ditions planted  and  grown  for  centuries  amongst  these 
people  by  their  European  conquerors,  are  dying  hard. 
That,  however,  they  are  becoming  less  and  less  popular 


98        UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

with  the  increased  introduction  of  foreign  trade  and 
traders,  and  especially  at  present  by  the  added  impetus 
to  South  American  industries  on  account  of  the  Euro- 
pean war,  is  patent  to  any  unprejudiced  observer. 
Ecuador,  with  its  vast  fields  of  untouched  wealth,  and 
with  its  growing  sense  of  justice  born  of  contact  with 
the  outside  world,  is  certain  to  cut  herself  away  slowly 
but  surely  from  these  deadening  bonds  with  which  she 
has  been  bound  for  hundreds  of  years,  and  with  this 
emancipation,  a  real  republic  of  far-reaching  value  to 
herself  and  the  world,  will  result. 

Bolivia — The  Mountain  Republic 

No  one  visits  Bolivia  without  considerable  sacrifice. 
It  is  justly  called  the  Mountain  Republic  for  it  is  an 
isolated  elevation  12,470  feet  above  sea  level,  and  in 
winter,  that  is  during  the  months  of  June,  July,  August 
and  September,  especially,  this  country  can  furnish  in- 
conveniences second  to  none  that  we  know  of  on  the 
face  of  the  earth. 

Shortly  before  our  intended  departure  from  Cuzco 
for  Las  Pas  we  were  greeted  with  the  cheerful  informa- 
tion that  a  terrific  snow  storm  was  raging  in  Bolivia 
and  that  two  policemen  had  been  frozen  to  death  on 
the  streets  of  La  Paz.  Since  the  Bolivians  have  no 
fires  in  their  houses,  coal  and  fuel  being  so  expensive, 
the  traveller  naturally  draws  the  conclusion  that  the 
policemen  were  frozen  upon  the  street  because  they 
had  gone  out  of  doors  to  get  warm.  Indeed,  the 
houses  of  Bolivia,  like  many  of  the  great  cell-like 
Spanish  structures  in  many  of  the  mountainous  sections 


TWO  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  99 

of  Peru,  seem  to  have  corked  up  the  cold  of  four  hun- 
dred years,  and  their  bleakness  is  absolutely  impreg- 
nable. No  one  who  visits  Bolivia  in  winter  can  possi- 
bly imagine  how  any  population  could  build  houses  with 
rooms  thirty  feet  long  and  sixteen  feet  high  with  no 
arrangements  whatever  for  warming  them,  to  resist  a 
climate  as  cold  as  the  United  States  in  November  or 
December,  unless  these  people  had  had  evil  intentions 
upon  their  posterity. 

I  asked  a  certain  gentleman  whom  I  met  coming  out 
of  the  country  wearing  three  overcoats  what  he  thought 
of  Bolivia.  He  answered  grimly,  "I  didn't  see  any- 
thing of  Bolivia.  I  spent  the  whole  time  while  in  the 
country  in  bed,  which  was  the  only  place  I  found  where 
I  could  keep  warm." 

There  are,  however,  things  in  Bolivia  other  than 
the  temperature  to  attract  and  to  impress  the  traveller. 
Here  is  really  a  remarkable  land,  lying  midway  of  the 
South  American  continent  at  the  place  where  the 
Andean  range  is  widest,  comprising  640,000  square 
miles,  being  the  third  largest  political  division  south  of 
Panama. 

The  population  of  this  country  of  the  Andean  table 
lands  is  2,000,000,  only  13  per  cent,  of  whom  are  pure 
white.  In  a  sense,  therefore,  it  is  an  Indian  republic. 
There  are  three  main  divisions  of  these  Indians,  the 
Ayamara,  Quichua,  and  the  Mojos,  together  with  many 
minor  tribes.  A  prominent  Indian  called  Bolivia  "a 
commonwealth  of  savages,"  a  title  which  would  hardly 
be  acceptable  to  the  whites  of  the  republic. 

Formerly  Bolivia  was  a  part  of  the  Kingdom  of  the 
Sun,  or  a  vital  section  of  the  Inca  Empire.    From  1821 


100      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

to  1825,  Simon  Bolivar,  who  is  called  the  George 
Washington  of  South  America,  led  the  Bolivians  to 
Independence,  and  the  people  took  his  name  in  honour 
of  his  career  as  Liberator.  Bolivia  was  thus  the  first 
of  the  South  American  states  to  teach  the  fine  art  of 
liberty  by  example,  and  she  is  very  proud  of  this  fact. 

In  the  first  Act  of  Independence  for  Bolivia  we  read 
the  words:  "Upper  Peru  was  the  altar  on  which  the 
first  blood  was  shed  for  liberty  in  the  land  where  the 
last  tyrant  perished." 

This  mountain  republic  stands  at  the  distributing 
cross  roads  for  traffic  through  South  America.  Two- 
fifths  of  its  area  is  mountain  region,  and  the  rest  is 
composed  of  vast  stretches  of  swampy  bottom  lands, 
forests,  low  hills  and  plains,  lying  on  the  eastern  border. 
It  is  a  land  rich  in  mines  of  silver,  tin  and  copper.  The 
climate  is  diverse,  and  like  Peru  it  is  capable  of  great 
extremes.  One  sees  in  La  Paz  llamas  loaded  with  ice 
from  the  north  coming  into  the  market  place  to  meet 
there  mules  loaded  with  oranges  and  tropical  fruits 
from  the  south  and  eastern  borders.  It  is  a  land  of 
contrasts  and  rich  resources,  and  is  as  dependent  upon 
the  Indian  race  as  is  Peru. 

La  Paz,  which  is  called  the  Mecca  of  the  Andes, 
Capital  and  chief  city  of  the  Bolivian  republic,  is  one 
of  the  picture  cities  of  the  world.  As  the  traveller  gets 
his  first  glimpse  of  it  lying  in  a  valley  one  thousand  feet 
deep  with  vertical  walls  ten  miles  long  and  three  wide, 
surrounded  by  snow-capped  mountains, — it  makes  an 
unforgettable  scene.  Five  rivers  flow  through  the 
valley  crossed  by  ponderous  bridges.  One  descends  to 
this  city  containing  60,000  to  100,000  population  (ac- 


TWO  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  101 

cording  to  the  movement  of  the  people)  ■  man.  tkrvrip 
car-line  built  by  an  American,  and  throughout  this  land, 
as  in  many  another  South  American  republic,  the  far- 
reaching  value  of  immigration  from  Europe  and  other 
parts  of  the  world  is  evident. 

Here  at  La  Paz  one  finds  a  railroad  centre  for  three 
lines.  The  city  is  indeed  the  pivot  not  only  for  the 
Bolivian  railway  system,  but  the  centre  of  the  future 
progress  of  the  country.  La  Paz  is  a  rapidly  growing 
city;  there  are  many  fine  buildings  and  the  city  is 
rapidly  building  down  the  valley.  As  in  other  South 
American  states,  the  past  history  of  the  country  has 
been  checkered  and  there  have  been  many  changes  in 
which  the  Capital  of  the  country  has  shared.  Indeed, 
the  traveller  will  have  pointed  out  to  him  quite  a  line 
of  cities  and  towns,  each  of  which  has  been  at  some 
time  the  Capital  of  this  land, — Sucre,  Cochabamba,  etc. 

An  Englishman  is  reported  to  have  asked:  "Where 
is  really  the  Capital  of  Bolivia?"  A  Bolivian  an- 
swered his  question  by  replying,  "The  Capital  of 
Bolivia  is  the  back  of  the  horse  which  the  President  of 
the  Republic  rides." 

In  entering  Bolivia  from  Peru,  while  the  traveller  is 
impressed  with  the  preponderance  of  Indians  as  is  the 
case  in  the  Sierra  section  of  the  Peruvian  country,  there 
is  also  the  impression  of  a  more  virile  and  sturdy  con- 
dition of  affairs  as  evidenced  both  in  people  and  in 
business.  Nine  hundred  miles  of  railway  in  the  coun- 
try bring  the  people  and  produce  to  the  central  mar- 
ket places  of  La  Paz,  and  an  Argentine  railway  is 
about  to  open  the  republic  to  the  Atlantic,  two  thou- 
sand miles  away  through  Buenos  Aires.     The  silver 


102      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

mint's  of  P-otoGi  are  famous  the  world  over,  and  in  the 
past  three  hundred  years  are  said  to  have  yielded 
two  billion  ounces  of  silver.  At  one  time  the  entire 
world  was  dependent  upon  these  mines  for  silver 
coinage.  Bolivia  is  sometimes  called  "The  Land  of 
Ten  Thousand  Silver  Mines,"  and  although  there  is 
still  a  great  lack  of  modern  enterprise  and  capital  to  tap 
the  rich  and  untouched  resources  of  this  vast  republic, 
the  present  development  is  increasingly  rapid. 

Cochabamba  is  the  garden  city  of  the  country  and 
the  city  of  tin  mines.  The  Bolivians  will  tell  you  with 
pride  that  their  country  is  the  second  tin-producing 
country  in  the  world. 

The  traveller  will  visit  Sucre  in  that  long  curve  of 
railroad  that  connects  La  Paz  with  Antofagasta  in  its 
two  days'  train  journey  and  find  in  this  one-time  Capital 
a  city  of  old  Spain,  but  gradually  being  dressed  in 
modern  clothes. 

In  Bolivia  the  military  service  has  been  made  com- 
pulsory for  Indians  between  the  ages  of  nineteen  and 
twenty-one,  and  these  have  been  drilled  in  many  cases 
by  German  officers  and  instructors.  It  is  a  combina- 
tion of  education  and  military  drill,  and  the  result  is 
said  to  be  a  rapid  advance  in  the  condition  of  this 
large  portion  of  the  population.  The  Indians  are 
taught  to  obey,  to  read  and  to  write,  and  some  authen- 
tic account  and  vision  of  modern  civilisation  is  being 
given  to  them.  There  is  a  dearth  of  scientific  and  in- 
dustrial training,  as  in  Peru,  and  one  is  always  led  to 
wonder  why  these  countries  existed  under  the  nominal 
influence  of  Spanish  control  for  hundreds  of  years  with 
so  little  genuine  and  systematic  attention  being  given 


TWO  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  103 

to  the  race  of  people  upon  whom  the  entire  population 
so  largely  depends. 

As  a  city  of  colour,  La  Paz  is  probably  unequalled  by 
any  city  in  South  America,  unless  perhaps  by  Cuzco, 
Peru.  The  costumes  of  the  people  are  so  vivid  that 
one  has  described  a  market  scene  by  calling  it  "a  field 
of  poppies  in  the  month  of  June."  The  women  wear 
round  flat,  pan-cake  hats,  embroidered  on  the  top,  and 
they  shine  and  glitter  in  the  sunlight.  The  stylish 
Boliviana  wears  as  many  skirts  as  she  can  get  on  her 
body,  often  eight  or  nine,  each  of  a  differing  shade, 
and  one  showing  below  the  other.  They  are  extremely 
full  and  sway  as  she  walks,  making  her  look  like  a 
perambulating  umbrella. 

The  ponchos  of  the  men  are  of  every  colour  under 
the  sun — red,  green,  brown,  grey,  purple,  yellow,  or  a 
mixture  of  all  the  colours,  made  up  in  stripes.  Yet  the 
dirt  of  years  tones  down  these  brilliant  colours,  until 
they  are  all  so  softened  that  they  form  a  beautiful 
whole.  The  people  are  brown  by  nature,  brown  by 
exposure  and  brown  from  lack  of  bathing  facilities, 
because  in  this  cold  country  a  bath  is  almost  a  sure 
forerunner  of  that  dreaded  disease,  pneumonia.  As 
in  Peru,  the  Indian  woman  is  always  occupied  with  her 
little  spinning  spindle,  and  as  she  walks  or  talks  or 
sits  before  her  wares  in  the  market  place,  her  hands 
are  busy  turning  the  wool  carried  upon  her  right  arm 
into  the  thread  with  which  she  weaves  her  clothing  and 
the  gay  poncho  of  her  lord  and  master. 

The  Aymara  Indians  impress  one  as  being  a  stronger 
and  more  vigorous  race  than  the  Quichuas  of  Peru,  and 
they  must  be  treated  with  more  consideration  than  these 


104      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

latter,  as  there  have  been  within  late  years  serious 
uprisings  of  the  Indians  to  voice  their  indignation 
against  unfair  treatment  meted  out  to  them  by  the 
white  man. 

As  with  the  other  South-American  Indians,  alcohol 
is  their  curse.  On  feast  days  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren become  horribly  intoxicated,  and  remain  in  that 
condition  so  long  as  they  can  beg,  borrow  or  steal  the 
liquor  they  crave. 

On  the  whole,  however,  Bolivia  seems  to  be  facing 
the  sun  and  appears  to  be  more  inclined  to  progress 
than  does  her  neighbour,  Peru.  Recently  negotiations 
have  been  carried  on  with  representatives  of  the 
Bolivian  government  for  large  plans  of  immigration, 
which  must  come  in  these  countries  if  modernity  is 
expected  to  appear.  The  plan  was  formed  not  long 
since  to  bring  one  thousand  colonists,  Dutch  and 
North  Americans  especially,  with  their  families  to  form 
an  agricultural  colony  in  Eastern  Bolivia,  and  it  is  be- 
lieved that  the  conditions  of  settlement  will  be  so 
favourable  that  these  people  will  become,  in  a  short 
time,  Bolivian  citizens. 

The  Congress  of  Bolivia  has  passed  a  bill  prohibit- 
ing, with  certain  exceptions,  work  on  Sundays  in  fac- 
tories, shops,  commercial  houses  and  other  business  es- 
tablishments. The  bill  also  provided  for  the  closing 
of  saloons  on  Sundays,  violations  of  the  law  being 
punishable  with  heavy  fines  for  the  first  offence  and 
with  fines  and  arrests  for  further  violations.  The 
need  of  commercial  and  business  training  is  being  felt  in 
Bolivia  and  plans  are  on  foot  for  commercial  schools; 
one,  the  Mercantile  Institute  of  Santiago,  Chile,  has 


TWO  MOUNTAIN  REPUBLICS  105 

opened  a  branch  school  in  La  Paz  under  the  manage- 
ment of  a  Bolivian  professor,  educated  in  Chile. 

The  possibilities,  born  of  the  immense  resources  of 
the  land,  are  well  nigh  limitless.  Bolivia  waits  for 
modern  pioneers,  for  leadership  and  the  right  training 
of  her  Indians,  for  capital  for  the  large  mining  and 
transportation  enterprises,  which  must  come  from  the 
outside,  and  for  a  system  of  education  adaptable  to  the 
diverse  elements  of  her  Mountain  Republic. 


CHAPTER  VI 

PERUVIAN    CHARACTERISTICS 
Manners  maketh  the  man. — William  of  Wyckham. 

THE  men  of  Peru  vary  so  widely  in  racial  origins 
and  national  characteristics  that  any  general  title 
like  "The  Man  of  Peru"  seems  to  call  for  the  further 
question,  "Which  man?" — Here  in  modern  Peru  one 
finds  the  mediaeval  man.  I  visited  a  great  Franciscan 
monastery  in  Lima  where  the  air  is  laden  with  the  in- 
fluences and  customs  of  far  distant  years;  the  monks 
chant  their  Latin  orisons  and  follow  their  mediaeval 
vows  as  though  Francis  of  Assisi  lived  but  yesterday. 
The  man  of  Peru  is  also  the  Indian  man,  at  least 
nearly  two  million  of  them,  though  population  statis- 
tics are  difficult  to  secure  on  the  tablelands  of  the 
Andes.  These  early  inhabitants  of  the  Americas 
range  in  character  from  utter  savages  abiding  in  the 
deep  recesses  of  the  Cordilleras  to  the  self-respecting 
landholders  and  agriculturists  of  the  coast  towns. 
These  Indians  form  as  a  rule  an  industrious  community, 
as  long  as  the  white  man's  whiskey  can  be  kept  out  of 
their  reach.  When  they  mix  in  marriage  with  the 
Spanish  stock  to  form  the  "mestizos,"  their  intelligence 
is  said  to  be  enhanced.  Yet  here  even  in  the  vigorous 
mountain  air  the  proverbial  "lazy  Red  Man"  is  to  be 

1 06 


PERUVIAN  CHARACTERISTICS  107 

found  all  too  frequently  and  his  mistrust  of  the  white 
man  makes  intimate  friendships  between  them  com- 
paratively rare.  If  the  Indian  of  Peru  could  be 
blessed  with  a  few  schools  of  the  grade  and  type  of 
training  in  practical  arts  of  Carlisle  and  Haskell,  the 
day  of  industrial  progress  would  be  hastened  by  scores 
of  years  in  this  rich  and  fertile  land  of  the  Incas. 

Among  the  one  and  one  half  million  inhabitants  of 
Peru  not  classed  as  Indians,  the  types  and  nationalities 
are  varied,  but  the  Spanish  racial  stock  predominates 
and  the  language  and  customs  of  Spain  have  set  a 
deep  mark  on  the  whole  country. 

In  spite  of  the  advantages  which  the  Spaniards  have 
brought  to  South  American  civilisation,  the  initial  ideal 
[or  perhaps  one  might  say  the  lack  of  ideal  as  far  as 
the  constructive  development  of  the  country  is  con- 
cerned,] and  the  inherent  form  of  pecuniary  corrup- 
tion attending  the  administration  of  Spanish  laws,  have 
shackled  Peru  making  difficult  modern  advance. 

Even  from  the  time  of  Pizarro,  the  eyes  of  the 
Spaniard  have  looked  towards  Europe  as  a  Mecca  of 
pleasure  and  the  place  to  which  he  is  anxious  always 
to  return.  Unlike  the  Frenchman  who  goes  to 
Morocco  or  Algeria  with  the  idea  of  permanent  settle- 
ment, rearing  there  his  small  towns  in  miniature  of 
those  in  France,  and  thinking  particularly  about  the 
building  of  homes  and  the  betterment  of  industrial 
conditions,  the  Spaniard  came  to  Peru  largely  for  ex- 
ploitation purposes.  He  was  an  adventurer  and  the 
glint  of  gold  was  in  his  eye.  Even  to-day,  he  will  not 
stay  in  the  country,  but  is  only  happy  when  he  is  at 
Lima  or,  if  his  means  permit,  when  spending  a  large 


108      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

part  of  the  year  in  Paris  or  some  other  European  cap- 
ital.  His  sons,  born  in  Peru,  have  inherited  these 
urban  tastes,  and  one  of  the  first  things  noticed  in  Peru 
is  the  lack  of  patriotism  or  love  for  the  rural  districts. 
I  frequently  heard  the  remark  that  certain  senators  had 
never  even  visited  the  provinces  which  they  were  sup- 
posed to  represent.  It  is  a  sad  commentary  upon  the 
industrial  capabilities  of  the  Peruvian  Spaniard  that 
virtually  every  great  commercial  and  national  Peruvian 
enterprise  has  been  inaugurated  and  developed  by  for- 
eigners. 

The  Peruvian,  more  than  the  inhabitant  of  any  other 
South  American  republic,  clings  to  his  pride  of  Span- 
ish lineage.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  no  colour  line  here, 
and  occasionally  a  man  whose  colour  would  be  a  handi- 
cap in  reaching  a  place  in  society  in  the  United  States, 
is  found  among  the  best  social  circles  in  Lima.  The 
white  men  who  stand  at  the  apex  of  Peruvian  society 
are  usually  members  of  old  families,  and  many  of 
them  have  retained  from  former  prosperous  days  con- 
siderable wealth,  while  all  have  inherited  more  or  less 
the  ideas  strange  to  North  Americans.  Among  these 
traditional  ideas  is  the  sentiment  that  labour  and  even 
commercial  activities  are  somewhat  infra  dig  and  the 
career  of  a  gentleman  who  can  live  without  work,  or 
a  politician  (which  often  means  the  same  thing  in 
Peru),  is  standardised  here. 

The  head  of  one  of  the  large  foreign  business  houses 
in  Lima  told  me  that  he  and  his  wife  did  not  expect 
much  of  a  place  socially  in  the  city,  because  of  his 
alliance  with  commercial  affairs.  While  it  is  a  truism 
that  "money  talks''  in  Peru,  quite  as  loudly  as  in  other 


PERUVIAN  CHARACTERISTICS  109 

countries,  and  the  ability  to  shine  in  material  splendour 
is  a  great  factor  in  securing  influential  leadership, 
nevertheless,  the  processes  of  securing  wealth  are  not 
popular;  to  this  fact  can  be  traced  much  of  the  back- 
ward condition  of  this  country,  surpassed  by  few  other 
lands  in  wealth  of  national  resources. 

The  cultivated  man  of  Peru  is  interested  in  making 
a  good  appearance,  in  dressing  in  the  height  of  fashion 
regardless  of  his  financial  ability,  and  in  placing  as  his 
ideal  a  condition  of  ease  in  which  he  can  merely  re- 
ceive his  dividends  and  spend  his  time  abroad,  or 
amidst  the  charmed  circles  of  select  Peruvian  society. 
Indeed,  those  who  have  really  reached  such  a  position 
enviable  in  the  eyes  of  their  countrymen,  dwell  in  a 
world  apart,  keep  largely  to  themselves,  intermarry, 
and  move  in  a  restricted  orbit,  filled  only  with  the  an- 
cestrally elect. 

Peru  is  one  of  the  few  South  American  republics 
in  which  the  tide  of  immigration  from  European  coun- 
tries has  not  as  yet  set  in  strongly.  In  Chile,  Argen- 
tina and  Brazil,  a  variety  of  ethnic  elements  from  vir- 
tually all  parts  of  Europe,  and  also  from  North 
America,  are  now  being  mixed  to  form  a  new,  vigorous 
and  self-respecting  division  of  mankind.  Peru  is  still 
in  the  shadows  of  the  middle  ages,  and  the  mediaeval 
Catholic  Church  is  revealed  more  potently  here  than 
in  any  other  large  state  south  of  Panama.  I  asked 
the  editor  of  a  foreign  paper,  who  has  lived  for  the 
most  of  his  life  in  Peru,  about  the  force  which  the 
Catholic  Church  exerted  upon  the  people,  and  he  an- 
swered : 


110      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

"It  is  a  force,  but  it  is  the  force  of  inertia — it  is  a 
stone  on  the  ground.  It  keeps  things  from  moving 
forward.  It  is  a  dead  weight  as  far  as  educational  or 
scientific  progress  is  concerned.  It  keeps  religion  for 
those  who  are  keen  for  it,  a  matter  tinged  with  super- 
stition. The  old  characteristics  of  the  Spanish  inqui- 
sition and  the  intolerance  of  any  other  faith,  still 
smoulder  just  below  the  surface." 

In  spite  of  the  dominance  of  the  Catholic  faith, 
which  is  supported  by  the  Government  and  has  the 
sympathy  and  allegiance  of  the  leading  classes,  the 
majority  of  the  men  of  the  country  seem  to  regard  the 
church  with  indifference.  uThe  women  go,"  they  say. 
In  a  goodly  number  of  cities  and  towns  of  Peru  I  in- 
quired concerning  the  active  part  which  the  men  took 
in  church  affairs  and  the  answers  were  everywhere  the 
same.  They  were  to  the  effect  that  while,  of  course, 
the  Catholic  religion  was  the  nominal  religion  of  the 
country,  the  tendency  of  the  manhood  of  Peru  was 
largely  towards  free  thinking,  if  not  agnosticism.  In 
a  church  service  in  one  of  the  towns  of  southern 
Peru  I  counted  seventy-five  women  and  three  men; 
although  this  proportion  would  not  hold  in  every  case, 
in  services  attended  in  at  least  half  a  dozen  different 
sections,  I  found  more  than  two  thirds  of  the  congre- 
gation composed  of  women. 

As  far  as  the  religion  of  the  country  is  connected 
with  morals,  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  what  influence 
the  church  is  exerting  upon  the  men  of  the  country. 
Much  has  been  written  in  derogation  of  the  morals 
of  the  Peruvian  men,  and  we  have  been  told  frequently 
enough  that  the  home  life  here  is  on  quite  a  different 


PERUVIAN  CHARACTERISTICS  111 

basis  than  that  of  the  United  States,  for  example. 
Allowing  much  for  exaggeration  (and  there  has  been 
undoubtedly  considerable  one-sided  writing  concerning 
this  subject)  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  institution 
of  marriage  is  not  held  in  the  same  sanctity  by  Peru- 
vians as  it  is  in  certain  other  countries.  Much  larger 
freedom  is  given  to  the  man  who  spends  large  portions 
of  his  time  at  his  clubs  and  in  amusements  in  which  his 
wife  cannot  share.  The  traditional  custom  of  semi- 
seclusion,  which  the  women  of  this  Spanish-American 
nation  have  held  rigidly,  has  produced  conditions  simi- 
lar to  those  found  in  the  Orient.  No  divorce  being 
possible  in  this  Catholic  country,  the  women  have 
found  it  necessary  either  to  submit  patiently  or  to  close 
their  eyes  to  a  condition  under  which  women  of  the 
United  States,  or  any  other  Protestant  country,  would 
take  refuge  in  the  divorce  court. 

Another  noticeable  feature  among  the  middle  and 
lower  classes  is  the  lack  of  the  marriage  ceremony, 
either  civil  or  ecclesiastical.  Some  say  that  the  ex- 
pense stands  in  the  way,  for  this  ceremony  is  usually 
attended  with  expensive  festivities  as  well  as  with  the 
necessity  of  fees  to  the  officiating  priest.  This  lack  of 
a  binding  tie  between  man  and  woman,  especially 
among  the  members  of  the  lower  classes,  makes  for 
looseness  of  living  and  also  works  particular  hardship 
upon  the  children,  who  are  frequently  left  for  the 
mother  to  support,  when  the  man  passes  on  to  another 
relationship. 

As  to  moral  integrity  and  honesty  in  business,  one 
finds  varying  opinions.  The  large  Peruvian  business 
firms  are  generally  conceded  to  be  trustworthy,  accord- 


112     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ing  to  the  testimony  of  foreigners  who  have  dealt  with 
them  for  many  years.  There  is  undoubtedly  a  grow- 
ing sense  of  responsibility  on  the  part  of  business  men 
in  this  country.  Among  the  small  shopkeepers,  how- 
ever, one  finds  here,  as  in  the  Orient,  two  prices  and 
in  some  cases,  many  prices.  There  seems  to  be  little 
commercial  integrity  among  the  retail  shopkeepers,  and 
even  the  Peruvians  will  advise  the  foreigner  that  he 
should  never  pay  the  first  price.  I  regret  to  say  that 
this  does  not  always  refer  to  the  shops  on  the  side 
streets,  as  I  had  good  reason  to  discover.  I  went  into 
one  of  the  largest  optical  and  photographic  supply- 
houses  in  Lima,  situated  on  the  main  business  street, 
and  was  charged  three  times  the  price  for  my  pur- 
chases, as  I  learned  afterwards,  that  I  should  have 
paid. 

But  in  spite  of  these  weaknesses,  the  Peruvians  are 
very  likable  people.  They  are  kindly;  they  will  go 
out  of  their  way  to  help  you  or  do  you  a  favour.  They 
make  good  friends,  but  it  also  must  be  added,  bad  ene- 
mies. Foreigners,  who  have  lived  for  a  long  time  in 
Peru,  bear  witness  that  they  are  very  pleasant  folk  with 
whom  to  live,  but  amiable  rather  than  practical.  In- 
quiring of  a  certain  European  of  long  residence  in  one 
of  the  Peruvian  ports  the  difference  between  Peruvians 
and  Chileans,  I  received  this  answer : 

"I  like  the  Peruvian  better,  but  I  prefer  to  do  busi- 
ness with  a  Chilean.  The  Peruvian  has  better  man- 
ners, but  he  is  less  efficient  in  a  business  way  than  his 
Chilean  neighbour." 

It  may  be  added  that  in  a  land  where  a  music  teacher 
finds  it  demeaning  to  carry  his  music  roll  to  the  house 


PERUVIAN  CHARACTERISTICS  113 

where  he  is  to  sing  in  an  evening's  entertainment,  re- 
quiring a  servant  to  follow  him  with  this  small  roll  and 
wait  outside  for  him  to  finish  in  order  to  carry  the 
roll  home;  in  a  country  where  a  student  may  not  soil 
his  hands  with  labour  to  help  himself  through  college ; 
and  where  the  beau  ideal  of  a  ten-dollar-a-week  clerk 
is  to  dress  up  like  a  gentleman  of  leisure  and  go  to  the 
horse  races — on  gambling  bent — the  charge  of  not  be- 
ing an  efficient  business  man  would  not  carry  with  it  the 
uncomplimentary  stigma  that  it  might  in  North 
America.  It  has  been  said  that  in  the  United  States 
there  is  no  human  being  so  lonely  or  so  miserable  as 
the  man  "out  of  a  job,"  but  in  Peru  it  would  hardly 
be  understood  that  a  gentleman  of  leisure  could  ever 
be  classed  among  the  "undesirables. " 

To  fail  in  courteous  gentlemanhood  is  to  be  declasse 
in  this  country,  patterned  after  the  Spanish  school  of 
courtliness.  It  is  doubtful  whether  a  better  mannered 
people  can  be  found  anywhere  on  the  face  of  the  earth 
than  here  among  the  best  classes  of  Peruvians.  In 
our  North  American  climate  where  directness  and  the 
absence  of  expressed  feeling  go  together,  we  have  been 
inclined  to  sniff  at  the  politeness  of  the  French,  the 
Japanese  and  the  Spanish,  as  being  needless  veneer,  if 
not  a  thin  veil  to  cover  insincerity.  The  Peruvians, 
however,  impress  one  as  being  really  sincere  in  their 
politeness.  Their  amiability  is  charming  and  conta- 
gious. You  find  yourself  falling  in  line  and  forgetting 
some  of  the  northern  brusqueness  and  practicality. 

A  Peruvian  gentleman  spoke  a  word  recently  which 
might  well  be  taken  to  heart  by  those  of  us  in  the 
United  States  who  are  over-proud  of  an  aggressive 


114      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

efficiency  which  loses  much  of  its  power  through  its  lack 
of  appreciation  of  those  amenities  that  are  second 
nature  to  the  Latin  temperament,  and  which,  we  must 
admit,  add  an  intangible  something  to  life's  relation- 
ships : 

"You  in  the  United  States,"  said  my  Peruvian  friend, 
"are  a  wonderful  people^  wonderful  in  your  organisa- 
tion and  practical  sense;  we  in  Peru  are  people  of 
feeling  and  emotion.  We  live  from  the  heart.  The 
ideal  is  to  unite  American  practicality  with  Peruvian 
feeling — either  one  alone  spells  failure." 

It  must  be  admitted  also  that  the  Peruvian  is  a  man 
of  ideals,  in  the  realm  in  which  his  temperament  finds 
easiest  expression.  He  loves  music  and  poetry.  I 
talked  with  a  member  of  an  old  family  in  Lima  who 
was  engaged  in  building  an  opera  house  at  the  expense 
of  $30,000.  He  is  equipping  this  building  with  every 
modern  device  which  would  cater  to  the  inculcation  of 
the  love  of  music  among  his  countrymen.  It  is  the 
first  attempt  of  the  kind  that  has  been  known  in  Peru, 
and  the  man  who  is  spending  his  time,  his  money  and 
his  enthusiasm  upon  this  undertaking  said,  "I  do  not 
expect  this  to  be  a  paying  venture.  I  am  not  thinking 
of  the  money-side  of  this  building,  but  it  is  my  desire 
to  do  something  with  my  money  to  bring  out  and  to 
maintain  the  strain  of  idealism  in  our  people." 

The  Peruvian  men  take  off  their  hats  when  meeting 
one  another  on  the  street  and  handshaking  is  an  omni- 
present institution.  You  may  not  be  surprised  to  have 
your  host  shake  hands  with  you  two  or  three  times, 
as  a  matter  of  course.     A  customer  may  shake  hands 


PERUVIAN  CHARACTERISTICS  115 

with  a  merchant  from  whom  he  buys  a  necktie,  and  he 
will  be  greatly  offended  if  you  do  not  allow  him,  as 
host,  to  put  himself  to  all  kinds  of  inconvenience  in 
your  behalf. 

In  business  this  emotional  and  enthusiastic  tempera- 
ment does  not  always  work  for  permanency.  The  for- 
eigner will  say  usually  that  he  finds  the  Peruvian  strong 
to  begin  a  new  venture,  but  that  he  does  not  hold  out 
in  the  face  of  obstacle  as  does  the  Anglo-Saxon.  Theo- 
retically he  knows  what  to  do  and  cannot  be  surpassed 
in  intelligent  comprehension  of  the  needs  in  a  particu- 
lar case,  but  he  fails  to  "carry  through."  He  lacks 
what  Napoleon  called  "two-o'clock-in-the-morning- 
courage." 

It  may  be  because  of  the  tendency  to  take  life  more 
easily  than  do  men  in  the  northern  America  that  the 
chief  end  of  the  Peruvian  youth  is  to  become  a  politi- 
cian, an  honourable  gentleman's  profession  requiring 
but  a  few  hours  of  work  a  day. 

Yet  the  tendency  to  use  the  office  of  a  politician  as  a 
means  for  pecuniary  profit,  through  "graft,"  has 
lessened  of  late.  It  may  be  because  there  are  fewer 
spoils  since  the  loss  to  Chile  of  the  nitrate  fields  which 
are  said  to  bring  Chile  a  revenue  of  $90,000,000 
yearly.  At  any  rate,  one  result  of  the  Chilean  war  has 
been  the  new  birth  of  patriotism  in  Peru,  and  signs 
of  greater  stability  and  honesty  in  government  affairs 
are  plainly  evident. 

Quite  apart  from  the  utilitarian  matters  to  which 
it  is  so  easy  to  bring  nations  and  men  to  book  in  these 
twentieth  century  days  of  progressive  material  effi- 
ciency, the  man  of  Peru  has  a  message  of  real  value 


116      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

to  his  South  American  neighbours,  as  well  as  to  his 
northern  brothers,  who  find  it  easy  enough  to  criticise 
him  for  the  want  of  things  they  possess  in  abundance. 
It  is  the  message  of  kindliness  and  the  attention  to 
those  amenities  of  daily  intercourse,  without  which 
dollars  and  dreadnaughts  are  alike  inadequate  to  make 
the  world  a  pleasant  place  in  which  to  stay.  An  old 
lady  who  knew  intimately  James  A.  Garfield  as  Presi- 
dent and  man,  said  to  a  friend  after  the  martyred 
President's  death,  "I  liked  him;  he  was  always  so 
pleasant." 

The  man  of  Peru  has  much  to  learn  in  matters  of 
industrial  proficiency  from  other  nations;  but  in  the 
realm  of  agreeableness  and  in  studious  attention  to 
the  fine  art  of  living  pleasantly  with  one's  fellow  men, 
the  man  of  Peru  can  teach  the  world. 


CHAPTER  VII 

NATURAL  RESOURCES  OF  PERU 

"Rocks  rich  in  gems,  and  mountains  big  with  mines, 
That  on  the  high  equator  ridgy  rise." 

HUMBOLDT  said  many  years  ago:  "Peru  is  a 
beggar  sitting  on  a  hill  of  gold." 

While  it  would  not  be  fair  to  the  modern  Peruvian 
to  say  that  Humboldt  was  right  relative  to  the  first 
part  of  his  definition  of  the  Peruvians,  no  one  who 
knows  the  stupendous  resources  of  this  old  land  of  the 
Incas  would  deny  the  truthfulness  of  the  last  part  of 
the  assertion.  In  spite,  however,  of  the  vast  resources, 
agricultural  and  mineral,  of  Peru,  the  country  has  been 
likened  with  some  justice  to  a  small  boy  who  has  money 
in  the  bank  but  is  unable  to  get  at  it  because  he  has  no 
key. 

Here  one  finds  in  the  various  sections  reaching  from 
the  low  coast  line  on  the  Pacific  to  a  height  of  more 
than  fourteen  thousand  feet  on  the  table  lands  of  the 
Cordilleras,  almost  every  known  possibility  of  industry 
through  the  rich  products  of  the  soil.  Sugar  and  cot- 
ton are  among  the  most  profitable  of  the  coast  enter- 
prises. One  is  told  that  in  Peru  the  greatest  cotton 
harvests  in  the  world  per  unit  of  acre  are  obtained. 
Upland  cotton  in  the  Ganete  valley  furnishes  an  aver- 

117 


118      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

age  of  five  hundred  and  fifty-three  pounds  per  acre, 
and  some  places  as  high  as  nine  hundred  and  sixty-eight 
pounds  are  being  obtained,  while  the  maximum  of  1384 
pounds  has  been  reached  in  the  valley  of  Lambayeque. 
A  high  average  in  any  one  of  our  Southern  states  is 
308  pounds. 

One  also  discovers,  somewhat  to  his  astonishment, 
that  the  growing  of  sugar  cane  can  be  made  a  most 
profitable  industry  in  the  coast  zone,  and  one  is  shown 
how  the  yield  per  acre  of  sugar  in  Peru  is  nearly  double 
that  of  any  of  our  sugar-producing  states.  The  Presi- 
dent of  the  Republic  owns  and  operates  a  sugar  mill 
which  is  said  to  be  one  of  the  most  enterprising  and 
successful  pieces  of  business  to  be  found,  not  only  in 
Peru,  but  in  any  other  section  of  sugar  enterprise.  It 
is  no  unusual  thing  in  this  resourceful  country  to  find 
great  sugar  haciendas  employing  from  one  thousand 
to  twenty  thousand  workers. 

Here,  as  in  India  and  in  Egypt,  the  land  is  simply 
waiting  for  water,  and  capital  invested  in  irrigation 
forms  a  most  remunerative  field.  The  area  of  this 
vast  zone,  capable  of  irrigation,  is  estimated  at  fifty- 
million  acres,  of  which  not  over  two  million  acres  are 
cultivated  at  the  present  time. 

As  one  goes  inland  to  the  great  table  lands  of  the 
Andes  and  elevated  plateaus,  although  the  region  has 
been  reached  by  two  railroads,  the  chief  means  of 
transportation  through  the  devious  windings  of  ravines 
and  mountain  gorges  is  the  llama  and  pack  mule. 
Here  one  finds  almost  every  known  kind  of  mineral — 
copper,  silver,  gold,  lead,  quicksilver,  coal,  zinc, 
petroleum,   sulphur,   bismuth,    cobalt  and   salt.      The 


NATURAL  RESOURCES  OF  PERU         119 

possibilities  of  this  region,  providing  railroads,  or  even 
good  country  roads,  can  be  furnished,  are  well  nigh 
limitless. 

The  most  important  formations  of  gold  are  found 
upon  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Andes,  and  it  is  estimated 
that  one  auriferous  deposit  in  this  region  contains  more 
gold  than  has  ever  been  found  in  California.  The 
famous  deposits  at  Aporoma,  several  miles  in  length, 
are  estimated  to  contain  gold  to  the  value  of 
$200,000,000.  You  will  be  told  how  these  mines  were 
one  time  worked  by  the  Incas  and  how  the  Inambari 
River  and  its  tributaries  are  veritable  gold  pockets 
and  also  how  the  mountain  regions  of  the  Sierra  proper 
are  rich  in  quartz  lodes.  The  scale  upon  which  Peru 
is  rich  with  this  latter  mineral  is  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  in  the  southern  part  of  the  country  there  is  to  be 
found  a  group  of  quartz  lodes,  ten  of  which  cross 
a  deep  valley  and  ascend  the  slopes  and  traverse  a 
high  plateau.  The  outcrop  of  these  lodes  is  said  to 
be  from  2,000  to  3,000  feet  above  the  lowest  level  of 
the  valley  while  the  lodes  extend  downward  to  unknown 
depths. 

The  great  difficulty  in  all  of  these  mines  is  the  lack 
of  sufficient  capital  to  install  proper  machinery  and,  as 
has  been  suggested,  proper  transportation.  There  are 
few  more  interesting  sights  for  the  traveller  in  Peru 
than  the  long  train  of  llamas  which  are  utilised  espe- 
cially in  the  high  altitudes  in  place  of  trains  to  trans- 
port these  rich  land  resources.  These  animals  will 
carry  one  hundred  pounds  and  no  more.  If  one  hun- 
dred and  one  pounds  are  placed  upon  a  llama's  back, 
it  is  said  he  will  lie  down  and  refuse  to  move  until  the 


120      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

pack  is  lightened.  He  is  called  "the  living  scales.*" 
These  trains  of  llamas  form  the  branch  railway  lines 
on  the  high  plateaus,  carrying  the  freight  to  the  in- 
terior from  the  railway  stations.  It  is  said  to  take 
one  hundred  and  fifty  llamas  to  carry  the  contents  of 
the  ordinary  freight  car. 

It  is  also  in  the  mining  of  copper  that  Peru  is 
to-day  one  of  the  great  producers  of  the  world.  The 
Cereo  de  Pasco  mines  which  lead  in  this  industry  were 
passed  by  an  English  concern  to  be  taken  up  by  a 
group  of  Americans  who  purchased  them  at  a  compara- 
tively low  figure  and  are  now  carrying  on  an  immense 
business,  with  an  authorised  capital  of  more  than  fifty 
million  dollars.  These  are  the  highest  mines  in  the 
world,  worked  at  an  elevation  of  over  16,000  feet. 
At  present  there  are  about  200  Americans  working  at 
Cereo  de  Pasco,  the  remainder  of  the  6,000  men  em- 
ployed in  these  mines  being  for  the  most  part  Peru- 
vians. This  means  a  population  of  30,000  people 
including  the  families,  forming  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting communities  to  be  visited  in  South  America.  It 
is  a  severe  test  upon  the  foreigner  to  work  in  these 
altitudes  since  mountain  sickness  (sorochee)  is  com- 
mon, and  many  of  the  Americans  who  have  gone  to 
these  mines  have  been  obliged  to  return.  It  is  said  that 
the  high  altitudes  cause  an  enlargement  both  of  the 
heart  and  the  lungs,  and  that  the  Indians,  who  live 
continuously  at  these  heights,  are  susceptible  to  tuber- 
culosis when  they  descend  to  the  lowlands. 

Recently  the  government  of  Peru  placed  an  export 
tax  upon  copper  when  the  price  of  this  commodity 
has  reached  or  goes  above  6$  pounds  a  ton.     The 


NATURAL  RESOURCES  OF  PERU         121 

present  manager  of  the  company  informed  us  that  at 
present  they  were  paying  $33.00  a  ton  export  tax,  but 
as  long  as  copper  sells  for  the  present  enormous  price 
of  144  pounds  sterling  per  ton  the  company  was  not 
inclined  to  find  fault  with  the  government  tax.  It  was 
also  stated  by  this  manager  that,  in  his  judgment, 
capital  was  as  safe  in  Peru  as  in  any  other  part  of  the 
world. 

The  traveller  is  astonished  in  going  about  this  coun- 
try at  the  scarcity  of  coal  because  he  is  given  to  under- 
stand that  the  land  is  rich  in  coal  deposits.  At  present, 
most  of  the  coal  comes  from  Australia  or  from  Wales, 
while  some  of  inferior  quality  is  brought  from  Chile. 
It  is  stated  that  the  bituminous  coal  region  of  Ogon  is 
by  far  the  greatest  coal  reserve  in  South  America,  and 
it  is  pointed  out  that  this  region  is  particularly  valuable 
in  that  it  lends  itself  to  the  establishment  of  a  coaling 
station  in  the  bay  of  Huaco. 

As  far  as  the  petroleum  industry  is  concerned  Peru 
is  virtually  at  the  beginning  of  the  enterprise,  although 
the  Peruvian  oil  field  is  the  second  in  the  world  as  re- 
gards its  extent.  The  lumber  industry  also  has  vast 
possibilities,  especially  on  the  slopes  of  the  Andes  on 
the  east  called  the  Montana.  These  wooded  slopes, 
extending  from  the  eastern  sides  of  the  Andes  to  the 
impenetrable  forests  of  the  Amazon,  filled  with  navi- 
gable rivers,  are  to  be  entered  by  two  trans-Andean 
lines  of  railroad.  The  forest  reserve  of  this  region  con- 
tains trees  of  great  size  and  beauty  and  is  capable  of 
furnishing  plain  lumber  or  hard  wood  of  almost  every 
known  variety.  In  this  region  it  is  not  uncommon  to 
see  an  entire  house  built  of  black  walnut,  or  of  mahog- 


122      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

any.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  these  forest  lands 
now  sell  for  about  twenty-five  cents  an  acre. 

Here  are  also  the  great  rubber  forests,  for  the  most 
part  still  unoccupied.  The  government  cedes  these 
lands  ad  perpetuam  for  the  payment  of  two  shillings 
for  two  and  one  half  acres.  The  projection  of  rail- 
road lines  into  this  region  promises  a  great  future  for 
both  Peruvian  lumber  and  rubber. 

Add  to  these  great  natural  resources  the  tropical 
possibilities  in  coffee,  cocoa,  wheat,  rice,  alfalfa,  and 
numerous  other  products  that  flourish  in  the  warm  and 
fertile  region  and  it  is  clear  that  this  country  has  been 
unusually  blessed  in  the  resources  of  its  soil. 

In  a  conversation  with  President  Pardo  I  was  inter- 
ested to  learn  that  the  present  government  of  Peru 
took  great  pride  in  the  American  industrial  and  mining 
establishments  in  this  country. 

"We  believe, "  said  the  President,  "that  we  have  a 
stable  government  now,  and  to  those  who  would  en- 
quire about  the  safety  of  business  enterprises  with  us 
we  would  give  as  an  example  the  enormous  English  and 
American  firms  and  corporations  that  have  been  carry- 
ing on  increasingly  successful  business  in  Peru,  not  only 
without  government  interference,  but  also  with  our 
sympathetic  attitude  and  support." 

It  is  the  time  of  times  for  the  United  States  to  con- 
sider Peruvian  resources  as  an  objective  for  American 
capital.  This  old  country  of  the  Incas  is  in  a  period 
of  impotent  transition,  and  the  friendly  sentiment 
which  the  Peruvians  hold  for  Americans,  together  with 
the  vastly  increased  trade  with  the  United  States  be- 
cause of  the  European  war,  and  the  use  of  the  Panama 


NATURAL  RESOURCES  OF  PERU         123 

Canal,  open  a  door  of  commercial  possibilities  unique 
in  the  history  of  these  two  republics.  The  American 
Consul  of  Lima,  who  informed  us  that  Peru  gave  to 
the  United  States,  even  before  the  war  in  the  year 
1 9 13,  6  per  cent  more  trade  than  she  gave  to  any  other 
nation,  also  stated  that  the  result  of  the  present  year 
of  commercial  intercourse  would  reveal  a  much  greater 
percentage. 

It  would  seem  a  strategic  and  far-reaching  policy  for 
American  capital  and  business  to  begin  at  once  to  assist 
Peru  in  discovering  and  making  use  of  the  limitless 
resources  in  her  "hill  of  gold." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  INDIAN  OF  PERU 

"Strike  hands,  my  brother  man, 
'Tis  yours  to  paint  the  morning  red 
That  ushers  in  the  grander  day. 
So  may  each  unjust  cord  be  broke, 
Each  toiler  find  a  fit  reward, 
And  life  sound  forth  a  truer  chord." 

ACCORDING  to  recent  statistics  the  population 
of  Peru  comprises  approximately  four  million 
people.  This  population  is  divided  as  follows: 
1,260,000  mestizos,  or  mixed  races  from  intermar- 
riages of  the  whites  with  the  Indians;  600,000  whites; 
100,000  negroes;  40,000  Orientals,  and  2,000,000 
Indians. 

The  great  problem  of  Peru  is  the  problem  of  the 
Indian  who  is  not  only  numerically  the  important  factor 
in  the  country,  but  who  is  also  virtually  the  only  sup- 
port of  the  vast  majority  of  the  population.  It  is  a 
common  saying  everywhere  that  all  Peru  lives  off  the 
Indian.  If  the  Indian  were  taken  out  of  Peru  to-day, 
the  country  would  starve,  at  least  unless  the  remaining 
portion  of  the  population  learned  by  necessity  to  culti- 
vate the  land  and  to  make  a  living. 

The  ancient  Inca  Empire  of  which  Cuzco  was  the 
centre  and  the  home  of  the  Inca  kings,  extended  origi- 

124 


THE  INDIAN  OF  PERU  125 

nally  from  beyond  Quito  to  the  southern  coast  of  Chile, 
including  what  is  now  known  as  Ecuador,  Peru  and 
Chile,  and  these  ancient  people  had  here  a  civilisation 
in  many  respects  more  advanced  and  civilised  than 
that  of  the  Spanish  adventurers  who  conquered  them. 
When  Pizarro  came  to  Peru  there  were  nearly  eight 
million  of  these  inhabitants  of  the  Inca  realm  in  Peru 
alone,  industrious,  law-abiding,  practising  progressive 
arts  and  having  irrigated  farms,  traces  of  which  are 
still  to  be  seen  along  the  high  peaks  of  the  Sierra  table 
lands.  Their  old  homes  and  fortresses,  their  temples, 
and  their  architecture  reveal  a  state  and  quality  of 
knowledge  and  skill  resembling  that  found  in  the  old 
Egyptian  tombs  and  monuments. 

When  the  Spaniards  came,  not  to  colonise  but  to 
conquer  and  to  exploit,  the  Indians  were  driven  from 
their  homes,  the  country  in  many  instances  went  to 
waste,  people  becoming  slaves  of  their  ruthless  masters 
who  proceeded  to  make  the  quiet,  tractable  Indians 
into  beasts  of  burden,  killing  them  ruthlessly,  whenever 
they  opposed. 

The  present  evil  traits  of  the  Indian,  his  dishonesty, 
suspicion  of  the  white  man  and  much  of  his  sloth  have 
been  the  result  of  the  conditions  under  which  he  has 
been  controlled  for  four  hundred  or  more  years.  Dur- 
ing the  old  Inca  regime,  such  sins  as  lying,  stealing  and 
adultery  were  punishable  by  death,  and  the  home  life 
of  these  ancient  people  was  far  better  in  character 
than  that  generally  found  to-day  among  their  suc- 
cessors. 

The  suspicion  that  the  Indian  holds  for  the  white 
man  is  pronounced,  and  it  is  only  after  continued  proofs 


126      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  his  friendship  that  the  white  man  can  gain  the  con- 
fidence, of  these  people  who  have  been  so  continuously 
wronged  through  the  centuries.  The  average  stranger 
who  speaks  to  the  Indian  will  hardly  get  an  answer  in 
Spanish  from  him ;  even  if  the  Indian  knows  that  lan- 
guage he  will  pretend  that  he  does  not  know  it,  for 
fear  some  new  device  or  demand  of  the  white  man 
will  be  practised  upon  him. 

A  friend  of  mine  who  is  accustomed  to  travel  much 
among  the  Indians  in  Peru  told  me  that  it  was  difficult 
even  to  secure  a  fowl  for  his  supper  in  an  Indian  vil- 
lage, since  the  Indians  feared  that  he  either  would  not 
pay  them  for  it,  or  would  play  some  trick  upon  them 
in  relation  to  it.  One  time  he  found  it  necessary  after 
offering  the  Indian  a  sole,  or  fifty  cents,  for  a  fowl  that 
was  worth  twenty  cents,  to  go  out  himself  and  shoot 
the  coveted  chicken;  when  the  Indian  saw  what  had 
been  done,  he  came  and  asked  my  friend  if  he  would 
give  him  forty  cents  for  the  fowl.  On  being  asked 
why  he  had  not  been  willing  to  take  the  proffered  sole 
at  the  beginning  he  simply  shrugged  his  shoulders,  say- 
ing that  he  did  not  believe  the  white  man  meant  what 
he  said.  He  said  he  had  never  found  truth  in  the 
white  man. 

Frequently  people  have  told  me  in  Peru  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  gain  the  friendship  of  the  Indian  because 
of  the  deep  seated  fear  and  suspicion  which  he  has  in- 
herited for  those  who  have  exploited  him  with  regu- 
larity and  his  fathers  before  him  for  hundreds  of  years. 
Nevertheless  you  will  be  told  by  those  people  who 
know,  that  the  Indian,  of  the  interior  especially,  forms 
the  most  trustworthy  labouring  element  in  Peru  to- 


THE  INDIAN  OF  PERU  127 

day.  He  is  hard  working  and  frugal,  living  on  a  small 
patch  of  land  which  is  frequently  owned  by  the  com- 
munity or  by  a  large  land  holder.  He  will  work  day 
after  day  for  his  masters,  receiving  only  ten  cents  in 
Peruvian  money,  which  is  equal  only  to  five  cents,  gold. 
At  the  end  of  the  week  he  receives  an  additional  sti- 
pend, making  his  wages  amount  to  about  fifteen  cents, 
gold,  a  day.  In  the  case  of  the  Indians  who  occupy 
land  on  the  great  estates  of  the  Sierras  (and  there  are 
often  as  many  as  four  hundred  families  of  Indians  who 
live  on  a  single  large  hacienda,  as  their  fathers  have 
for  generations)  the  owners  have  the  right  to  demand 
the  labour  of  the  Indian  for  virtually  any  work  re- 
quired and  at  any  time.  At  time  of  planting,  weed- 
ing and  harvesting,  all  the  Indians  are  requisitioned  to 
cultivate  the  great  estates  and  when  the  owner  wishes 
to  send  his  produce  to  market,  he  has  simply  to  call 
upon  his  Indians  who  respond  with  their  trains  of 
llamas  carrying  the  produce  many  leagues  to  the  near- 
est shipping  place,  without  charge  to  the  owner. 

While  this  seems  at  first  sight  nothing  short  of  slav- 
ery, the  lot  of  the  Indians  in  these  mountains  is  not 
so  bad  as  it  might  seem.  They  have  their  own  bits 
of  land  which  they  cultivate  assiduously  and  which 
yield  them  a  good  living,  and  they  have  their  own 
sheep,  llamas  and  alpacas,  and  a  certain  number  of 
cattle.  Their  grazing  lands  are  apportioned  to  them 
and  they  are  protected  in  their  rights.  There  is  no 
danger  of  their  homes  being  taken  from  them.  In 
fact  the  Indian  in  the  interior  is  so  wedded  to  the  place 
where  he  and  his  fathers  have  lived  for  generations, 
that  it  is  virtually  impossible  to  move  him  from  his 


128      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

home.  When  the  land  changes  hands  the  Indians  are 
sold  with  the  land,  and  simply  transfer  their  allegiance 
from  one  master  to  another. 

While  in  Cuzco,  I  had  personal  knowledge  of  a 
transaction  involving  the  transfer  of  a  great  farm 
thirty  miles  square  upon  which  there  were  living  five 
hundred  Indian  families.  Its  seven  hundred  able  bod- 
ied men  constituted  one  of  the  chief  assets  of  the  farm, 
since,  with  these  sons  rooted  to  the  native  soil,  the 
owner  was  certain  of  his  labour  and  never  would  be 
troubled  with  strikes  or  problems  relative  to  the  fluc- 
tuation of  wages.  In  these  sections,  moreover,  the 
Indian  impresses  one  as  being  much  freer  and  happier 
than  on  the  smaller  individual  portions  of  land  nearer 
the  large  towns,  where  he  is  in  continual  trouble  and 
often  at  the  mercy  of  lawyers  and  lawsuits.  I  was 
shown  a  large  tract  of  land  filling  a  beautiful  valley 
on  the  high  plateaus  of  southern  Peru  which  was  owned 
formerly  by  the  Indians.  It  is  now  possessed  by  three 
lawyers  in  Cuzco,  who  by  clever  manipulation  have 
managed  to  embroil  the  Indians  in  lawsuit  after  law- 
suit, until  these  native  owners  have  lost  control  of  their 
original  properties.  It  is  a  proverb  in  Cuzco  that  a 
rich  lawyer  is  a  rich  farmer,  for  the  first  and  constant 
mm  of  the  lawyer  is  to  get  hold  of  as  much  of  the  In- 
dian's land  as  can  be  secured. 

There  is  no  more  picturesque  sight  to  be  seen  in 
South  America,  if  indeed  anywhere  in  the  Orient,  than 
these  Indians  journeying  on  foot  behind  their  long 
trains  of  llamas,  laden  with  alpaca  or  wool  on  their 
way  to  the  market  place.  A  market  place  like  that  of 
Sicuani,  where  on  Sunday  many  hundreds  of  Indians 


THE  INDIAN  OF  PERU  129 

gather,  leaving  their  llamas  and  burros  corralled  on 
the  hillsides,  while  they  throng  the  central  place  with 
their  wares  for  sale,  makes  an  unforgettable  picture. 
The  first  impression  is  one  of  colour — colour  every- 
where. It  is  one  vast  sea  of  variegated  ponchos, 
shawls  and  head  dresses.  Strangely  enough  they  all 
seem  to  consist  with  the  peculiar  brown  of  the  Indian 
faces,  and  the  harmony  of  colours  under  the  blazing 
light  of  the  semi-tropical  sun  can  scarcely  be  dupli- 
cated anywhere  else  upon  the  globe. 

Women  in  gay  dresses  of  red  or  blue  or  purple,  are 
sitting  in  front  of  their  little  mats  on  which  they  dis- 
play the  food  for  sale,  or  the  socks  which  they  have 
made,  or  the  ponchos  they  have  woven,  and  as  they 
bargain  with  the  passer-by  their  hands  are  always  busy 
with  the  little  spindle  dangling  from  their  arms  on 
which  they  are  spinning  the  wool  from  which  they  will 
make  their  socks  or  ponchos.  They  are  never  idle, 
these  Indian  women,  as  they  trot  along  the  paths  be- 
hind their  llamas,  or  as  they  herd  their  sheep  on  the 
hillsides,  or  as  they  come  through  the  streets  of  Cuzco; 
you  see  that  little  spindle  being  twirled  by  the  hand 
that  has  become  so  used  to  the  labour  that  the  process 
is  performed  mechanically  and  seemingly  without  ef- 
fort. 

After  the  market  is  finished  the  Indian  goes  to  his 
favourite  chicheria,  where  in  a  great  dark  room,  whose 
only  light  enters  by  the  low  doorway,  he  will  sit  upon 
a  rude  bench  or  on  the  earthen  floor,  and  drink  a 
glass  of  his  national  chicha,  his  food  and  drink  com- 
bined, made  from  corn.  This  drink  is  said  to  be  in- 
toxicating if  used  in  great  quantities,  but  its  fermenta- 


130      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tion  is  very  slight,  generally  being  drunk  the  same  day 
it  is  made,  and  it  takes  a  considerable  amount  to  pro- 
duce intoxication.  For  ten  cents  the  Indian  will  re- 
ceive a  glass  containing  nearly  a  quart  of  the  muddy 
brown  liquid  and  a  plate  of  "piquante,"  a  stew  made 
from  vegetables  and  meat  or  fish,  highly  seasoned  with 
red  pepper.  The  Indian  is  not  fastidious  and  does 
not  resent  the  guinea  pigs  running  around  him  as  he 
eats  his  food,  nor  does  he  notice  the  smoke  that  arises 
in  great  clouds  from  the  open  fire  which  has  no  outlet 
except  the  room  itself.  He  eats  his  piquante  and 
drinks  his  chicha,  then  takes  a  few  coca  leaves,  rolls 
them  into  a  ball,  puts  a  little  lime  in  the  middle  of  the 
ball  and  places  it  in  his  mouth,  when  he  is  ready  for 
his  homeward  journey. 

His  home  is  quite  likely  a  rude  mud,  straw-thatched 
hut  in  a  little  village  lying  close  up  against  the  moun- 
tains in  one  of  the  valleys  through  which  a  stream 
rushes  down  from  the  melting  snows  of  the  lofty  Si- 
erras. The  typical  dwelling  is  about  eight  or  ten  feet 
in  width  and  ten  or  fifteen  feet  long.  The  doorway 
is  so  low  that  the  ordinary  person  must  bow  his  head 
to  enter  it.  There  are  no  windows  and  no  chimneys, 
and  virtually  no  furniture.  In  some  of  the  huts  there 
is  a  framework  upon  which  the  family  sleep  at  night, 
but  in  the  great  majority  of  Indian  homes  in  this  sec- 
tion, men,  women,  babies  and  animals  share  the  floor 
space  and  huddle  together  to  keep  warm  on  the  cool 
nights  in  these  high  altitudes.  A  little  mud  stove,  or 
three  stones  in  the  corner  of  the  room,  burns  a  peat 
that  is  found  on  the  pampa,  and  the  smoke  from  the 
fire  blackens  the  roof  of  the  hut  and  escapes  as  best  it 


THE  INDIAN  OF  PERU  131 

may  through  the  doorway.  There  are  one  or  two 
cooking  pots,  a  jar  for  water,  and  perhaps  a  couple 
of  dishes  in  which  to  empty  the  food,  but  fingers  were 
made  before  modern  utensils,  and  they  are  the  chief 
resource  of  the  Indian  who  dips  his  hand  into  the  com- 
mon bowl.  Just  outside  the  hut  is  a  little  corral  where 
the  burros,  the  tiny  lambs  and  the  pigs  enjoy  a  pro- 
miscuous intimacy  with  the  family. 

The  food  of  the  Indian  is  simplicity  itself,  consist- 
ing of  the  ever  present  Indian  maize,  mutton  and  po- 
tatoes, all  of  which  is  often  made  into  a  thick  soup, 
seasoned  freely  with  red  peppers.  In  the  higher  alti- 
tudes frozen  mutton  and  frozen  potatoes  form  the 
chief  diet.  The  potatoes  are  frozen  and  refrozen,  un- 
til all  the  liquid  is  eliminated,  leaving  only  the  nutri- 
tious part  of  the  plant.  The  corn  is  parched  and 
ground  into  a  coarse  meal  with  which  they  thicken  their 
soups.  Nearly  every  family  keeps  a  few  chickens 
which  are  eaten  on  feast  days  and  pork  also  is  appreci- 
ated evidently,  as  it  is  quite  common  to  stumble  over 
a  pig  when  trying  to  enter  the  darkened  dwellings  of 
the  Indians.  The  guinea  pig  is  especially  omnipres- 
ent, and  his  abundant  fertility  furnishes  a  cheap  article 
of  diet  to  the  frugal  Indian. 

Marriage  among  these  Indians  of  the  Sierras  is  not 
general,  although  the  Indian  chooses  his  mate  at  an 
early  age  and  his  loyalty  to  her  and  his  family  is  usually 
lifelong  and  in  striking  contrast  to  conditions  found 
among  the  cholas  or  mestizos  occupying  the  towns  and 
villages.  You  will  be  told  constantly  by  those  who 
live  in  the  midst  of  these  mountain  tribes  that  there  is 
very  little  immorality  among  them,  and  the  spirit  of 


132      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

co-operation  existing  between  the  man,  woman  and 
all  the  children  in  their  common  toil  and  simple  pleas- 
ures is  as  beautiful  as  it  is  praiseworthy. 

Nor  is  the  Indian  free  from  romance.  Indeed,  a 
strong  romantic  strain  runs  through  the  character  of 
these  people  of  the  hills.  Often  in  riding  along  the 
mountain  trails  the  traveller  will  see  in  front  of  him  an 
Indian  boy  and  girl  walking  along  hand  in  hand,  and 
as  the  rider  approaches  their  hands  will  unclasp,  and 
the  same  shy  look  will  pass  over  their  faces  as  one  sees 
on  the  faces  of  youth  in  courting  time  in  other  lands. 
On  a  quiet  night  in  some  of  these  wonderful  valleys 
the  traveller  may  be  sitting  on  the  veranda  of  a  great 
hacienda  when  there  will  float  up  to  him  the  plaintive 
murmur  of  a  flute,  played  in  a  minor  key.  The  owner 
of  the  ranch  will  turn  to  you  and  say: 

"I  see  it's  courting  time.  One  of  my  Indians  is 
serenading  his  lady  love,  down  there  in  the  Indian  vil- 
lage. One  of  these  days  he  will  come  to  me  and  say, 
'Master,  I  want  a  plot  of  ground,'  and  I  will  go  with 
him  and  choose  his  land  and  he  will  build  his  little  hut, 
and  there  will  be  a  new  family  on  the  estate." 

As  far  as  the  education  of  the  Indian  goes,  there  is 
at  present  much  to  be  desired.  Nominally  there  is 
compulsory  education  throughout  Peru,  but  such  edu- 
cation can  not  be  enforced  among  the  Indians  because 
of  the  manner  and  the  necessities  of  their  life,  even  if 
the  Government  provided  sufficient  schools  and  teach- 
ers. In  the  larger  towns  and  villages  a  rudimentary 
teaching  is  given  to  Indian  children  during  certain 
months  of  the  year,  but  as  a  rule  the  Peruvian  seems  to 


THE  INDIAN  OF  PERU  133 

go  on  the  principle  that  it  is  better  to  keep  the  Indian 
fairly  ignorant  in  order  that  he  may  not  get  above  his 
business  of  making  a  living  for  the  rest  of  the  Peruvi- 
ans. If  the  Indian  was  educated,  and  began  to  think, 
the  Peruvian  might  have  to  work,  which  would  be  a 
tragedy.  Here  and  there,  however,  one  comes  across 
educated  Indians  who  show  signs  of  progressive  lead- 
ership and  some  day  it  is  hoped  a  Dr.  Eastman  will 
be  raised  up  here  in  Peru  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the 
Indian  [some  man  like  Colonel  Rondon  of  Brazil], 
building  for  him  schools  of  industrial  training,  and 
raising  up  a  new  generation  of  intelligent  and  indus- 
trially-minded descendants  of  the  Incas. 

With  the  coming  of  industrial  training  for  these  In- 
dians there  should  come  also  a  lightening  of  the  load 
of  religious  superstition  which  they  are  now  carrying. 

The  burdens  which  are  bound  upon  the  poor  Indian 
by  the  priests  who  make  him  pay  for  birth,  life  and 
death,  feast  days  and  days  of  sorrow,  all  in  the  name 
of  religion,  are  among  the  heaviest  which  he  has  to 
bear.  Add  to  this  burden  of  superstitious  faith  fois- 
ted upon  him  by  his  conquerors,  the  use  of  alcohol 
to  which  he  has  also  been  introduced  by  the  white  man, 
and  one  sees  two  of  the  chief  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
the  Peruvian  Indian's  present  advance. 

The  lack  of  knowledge  regarding  the  outside  world 
has  thus  far  kept  the  Indian  an  inhabitant  in  an  iso- 
lated existence,  and  his  mountains  and  his  animals  are 
still  the  chief  things  which  he  knows.  That  he  is  as 
good  and  as  capable  as  he  is,  considering  his  lack  of 
opportunities  and  the  manner  in  which  he  has  been 
treated,  is  a  revelation  of  the  inherent  qualities  of  a 


134      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

race  of  men  worthy  of  the  study  and  the  sacrifice  of  any 
people  truly  interested  in  humanity. 

The  red  man  of  the  Sierras  has  degenerated  since 
the  white  man  has  touched  him.  The  great  question 
persists,  when  will  the  white  man  pay  his  debt  to  the 
Peruvian  Indian  by  giving  him  the  privilege  of  being 
a  man? 


CHAPTER  IX 

CUZCO  AND  THE  INCAS  OF  TO-DAY 

A  voice  oppression  cannot  kill 
Speaks  from  the  crumbling  arches  still. 

Whittier. 

JUDGING  from  many  of  the  books  written  upon 
Cuzco  and  southern  Peru,  one  might  easily  gain 
the  impression  that  the  chief  and  only  attraction  of 
this  old  Inca  city  existed  in  the  big  rocks  from  which 
the  people  in  some  pristine  age  constructed  their 
houses  and  fortresses.  Enough  has  been  written  con- 
cerning these  poor  old  rocks  to  fill  a  geological  li- 
brary. The  reading  to  most  people  would  get  monot- 
onous from  repetition,  since  it  would  run  somewhat  as 
follows : 

*These  stupendous  boulders  were  lifted  to  their 
places  with  no  aid  of  modern  machinery.  They  were 
laid  without  mortar,  and  so  close  together  that  you 
cannot  insert  a  knife-blade  between  them  (this  knife- 
blade  simile  is  invariably  associated  with  the  Cuzco 
rocks).  The  corners  are  rounded  marvellously.  Al- 
though thousands  of  square  yards  of  these  walls  yet  re- 
main, many  have  been  ruthlessly  destroyed  by  the  ad- 
venturous Spaniards,   or  by  later  Peruvian  vandals, 


135 


136     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

There  are  many  variations  more  or  less  verbose, 
but  the  above  is  the  main  text  from  which  writers  from 
Pizarro  until  now  have  preached  their  stone  sermons 
anent  Cuzco,  and  if  the  guidebook-loving  traveller 
spends  all  his  precious  hours  in  this  fascinating  city  of 
the  Andean  tablelands  nosing  about  among  the  old  tot- 
tering walls  of  very  ordinary  houses,  and  misses  the 
real  Cuzco  of  picturesque  Indian  life  and  modes  of  ex- 
istence reflecting  the  Middle  Ages — let  him  not  blame 
Cuzco,  but  rather  the  authors  and  grave-diggers  who 
love  the  dead  and  dug-up  things  more  than  live  peo- 
ple and  present-day  conditions  of  living. 

To  me,  an  hour  in  the  Plaza  de  las  Armas  of  this 
City  of  the  Sun,  surrounded  by  the  vast  protecting  hills 
that  hold  the  old  city  of  the  Incas  in  their  bosom,  where 
one  sits  in  a  four-ringed  circus  of  moving,  colourful, 
primitive  life,  which  no  single  spot  I  have  ever  visited 
on  the  wide  face  of  the  earth  affords  in  a  like  degree, 
leaves  a  memory  as  unforgettable  as  it  is  impossible 
to  delineate.  A  phantasmagoria  of  colour,  of  antiq- 
uity in  architecture,  of  absolutely  unusual  specimens 
of  humanity  and  animals  ranging  all  the  way  between 
ponchoed  and  shawled  Indian  men  and  women  of  the 
far  distant  Sierras  to  the  would-be  modern  cholos, 
wearing  hats  made  in  Germany;  and  from  the  two 
teams  of  mules  that  drag  the  Cuzco  horse  car  to  the 
long  trains  of  lofty-necked  llamas  that  sweep  by  you, 
each  with  his  packful  of  alpaca  from  the  high  interiors. 

We  called  it  a  four-ringed  circus,  and  so  it  is;  as 
you  sit  in  this  great  flower-filled  square,  more  than 
n,ooo  feet  above  sea  level,  the  semi-tropical  sun  shed- 
ding its  warmth  radiantly  upon  your  head  through  the 


CUZCO  AND  THE  INCAS  OF  TO-DAY      137 

thin,  transparent,  cloudless  air,  you  find  yourself  won- 
dering which  way  to  face  lest  something  of  the  ever 
strange,  unfolding  scenes  escapes  your  gaze.  One  side 
of  the  square  is  lined  by  a  row  of  little  shops  filled  with 
"fifty-seven  varieties"  of  merchandise.  Among  these 
predominate  gaily-coloured  saddles  and  diverse  accou- 
trements for  the  burros  and  pack  animals,  with  pro- 
fuse decorations  of  red  and  green  and  blue  wool.  Be- 
fore these  shops  sit  Indian  and  cholo  women,  holding 
in  their  hands  spindle  spools  which  they  manipulate 
dexterously  during  the  intervals  of  trade,  spinning  the 
wool  which  later  they  weave  into  the  ponchos  and  caps 
and  full  skirts  of  the  native  dress.  It  interested  me 
to  learn  that  the  riot  of  colour  seen  in  these  Indian 
dresses  and  ponchos  was  attributable  to  the  famous 
aniline  dyes  that  Americans  find  it  difficult  to  import 
these  days  from  overseas.  Above  these  quaint  places 
of  merchandise  in  the  top  of  the  two-storied  houses  are 
homes,  with  elaborately  carved  balconies  overhanging 
the  street  in  old  Spanish  fashion,  while  above,  the 
red-tiled  roofs  glitter  in  the  sun,  spreading  over  the 
sidewalks  and  supported  by  deep  pillars.  Here  and 
there,  through  some  opening,  you  will  catch  a  glimpse 
of  a  patio  within  these  houses,  and  a  four-square  clois- 
ter effect  out  of  which  the  homes  open  to  the  sunlight. 
On  another  side  of  the  plaza  stands  the  ancient 
cathedral,  built,  as  one  is  told,  of  the  famous  Inca  stone 
and  containing  the  bones  of  the  brother  of  Pizarro 
and  that  Spanish  conqueror's  partner,  Almagro.  On 
the  doors  of  the  chapel  of  Santiago  adjoining  the 
cathedral,  one  can  read  the  legend  preserved  in  archaic 
sculpture  of  St.  James  coming  down  visibly  on  his  white 


138      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

horse,  standing  with  lance  in  rest  to  turn  the  tide  of 
battle  in  favour  of  the  Spaniards,  thus  witnessing  the 
last  throes  of  the  famous  Inca  Empire. 

If  you  can  divert  your  attention  from  the  passing 
throng  of  travel  from  the  hills  that  confront  one  on 
still  another  side  of  the  square,  you  can  study  the  re- 
markable fagade  of  the  old  Jesuit  church,  and  the  an- 
cient University  of  Cuzco,  founded  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, buildings  which  are  said  to  be  connected  by  an 
underground  passage,  associated  with  many  an  historic 
intrigue  in  the  old  days  of  the  conquistadores. 

These  great  piles  of  ancient  masonry  look  straight 
away  to  the  east,  where  the  Cyclopean  structure  often 
called  the  ninth  wonder  of  the  world,  the  great  mega- 
lithic  fortress  of  Sacsahuaman,  tops  the  hill,  700  feet 
above  the  city.  There  one  climbs  to  behold  the  rock 
remains  which  guarded  the  aboriginal  Inca  Empire  of 
Manco  Capac,  pristine  king  of  the  vast  west  coast  of 
South  America.  Halfway  up  the  slope  an  old  Inca 
home  can  be  seen,  half  hidden  among  the  eucalyptus 
trees,  while  on  the  summit  stands  a  cross  bearing  an 
inscription  to  the  effect  that  to  him  who  climbs  the 
hill,  kisses  the  crucifix  and  says  a  prayer  at  the  foot  of 
the  cross,  a  hundred  days  of  indulgence  shall  be 
granted. 

Here  one  can  sit  for  hours  and  dream  of  the  scenes 
that  were  enacted  on  these  surrounding  terraces  over- 
looking the  heart  of  the  Inca  city.  It  is  a  drama  of 
pastoral  life,  for  the  most  part,  of  which  no  Virgil  has 
ever  arisen  to  sing, — an  epic  poem  as  romantic  and 
tragic  as  any  siege  of  Troy  caught  in  Homeric  num- 
bers. 


MASKED  DANCERS  AT  CARMEN  ALTO,  PERI'.  DURING  CARNIX  A 


RUINS.      PALACE  OF  THE  INCA,  CUZCO 


CUZCO  AND  THE  INCAS  OF  TO-DAY      139 

It  was  an  agricultural  empire, — this  far-famed  em- 
pire of  the  "Son  of  the  Sun.'*  It  was  a  kingdom  of 
labour  and  a  nation  that  depended  upon  the  land.  On 
one  great  slope  of  hill  which  is  now  waving  with  golden 
grain,  the  Cuzconian  will  point  out  to  you  the  place 
where,  in  order  to  dignify  labour,  the  old  Inca  kings 
themselves  were  wont  to  initiate  with  their  own  hands 
the  seasons  of  planting  and  harvest.  The  king  Inca, 
amidst  pomp  and  festival,  would  go  to  the  terraces 
of  the  Colcompata  and  begin  to  break  up  the  soil  with 
a  golden  pickaxe,  while  the  populace  stood  below  in 
the  famous  square  with  uncovered  heads.  Later,  when 
the  maize  and  quinoa  had  ripened,  he  again  went  out 
amid  the  rejoicing  of  the  multitudes  to  signallise  the 
harvest  time  by  plucking  the  first  fruits  of  the  high- 
standing  grain.  These  harvests  were  invested  with  a 
sacredness  akin  to  the  worshipful  wonder  connected 
with  the  rising  flood  of  the  Nile  for  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians; they  were  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the 
Inca  Son  of  Heaven,  and  seeds  from  this  first  harvest 
were  distributed  throughout  the  empire. 

Again,  from  this  central  gathering  place  of  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Incas,  the  traveller  will  be  shown  far 
on  the  heights  a  certain  rounded  corner  of  the  road 
where  the  Indians,  coming  down  from  the  high  coun- 
try, catch  the  first  glimpse  of  this  beloved  City  of  the 
Sun  lying  with  her  red  tiles  shining  in  the  white  light 
a  thousand  feet  below.  It  is  here  that  the  native  still 
halts  as  in  bygone  days,  and  removing  his  hat  gazes 
down  upon  the  city  of  his  forefathers,  murmuring  in 
Quichua  the  half-prayerful  greeting,  "O  Cuzco,  great 
City  of  the  Sun,  I  greet  thee!" 


140     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

As  one  wanders  out  of  this  picturesque  square,  he 
meets  on  all  sides  strange  and  fascinating  scenes. 
There  are  colonnaded  sidewalks  filled  with  shops,  re- 
sembling a  bit  the  souks  of  Tunis,  where  the  small 
shop-keepers  sell  and  barter  with  the  Indian.  It  is 
colour,  colour  everywhere.  The  ponchos  or  blankets 
worn  are  slipped  over  the  head  through  a  hole  in  the 
middle,  and  are  striped  red  and  yellow,  brown  and 
blue — every  colour  of  the  rainbow.  The  Indian  wears 
a  little  crocheted  cap  of  red  or  yellow  or  some  other 
bright  colour,  with  little  ear  flaps  that  pull  down  over 
the  side  of  his  face,  leaving  his  black  hair  as  a  set- 
ting for  his  swarthy  features.  His  trousers  are  short, 
coming  a  little  below  the  knee,  slit  up  a  certain  dis- 
tance to  facilitate  his  walking.  There  is  always  a 
gaily  embroidered  bag  hanging  from  his  waist  in  which 
he  carries  his  coca  leaves.  This  coca,  which,  he  chews 
constantly,  provides  him  virtually  with  food  and  drink 
in  his  long  marches.  It  is  mixed  with  ashes  to  bring 
out  the  properties  of  the  alkaloid,  somewhat  as  the 
East  Indians  mix  lime  with  their  betel  nut.  Although 
it  is  generally  admitted  that  the  prolonged  use  of  coca 
befogs  the  mind  of  the  Indian  and  becomes  at  last 
an  ally  of  his  ignorance  and  paganised  religion  to  rob 
him  of  his  enlightenment  and  his  years,  it  does  less 
injury  to  his  motor  faculties  and  brain  than  does  the 
white  man's  alcohol;  and  its  solace  helps  to  mitigate 
the  monotonous  adversity  of  his  chill  and  barren  ex- 
istence. Even  the  missionary  to  these  folk  of  the 
lofty  tablelands  is  loath  to  take  away  this  omnipresent 
cheekful  of  coca.  The  native  of  the  Sierra  will  trot 
cheerily  along  for  days  with  his  heavy,  back-breaking 


CUZCO  AND  THE  INCAS  OF  TO-DAY      141 

burdens,  providing  only  that  his  coca  holds  out,  but 
without  it,  his  strength  fails  and  even  food  is  inadequate 
to  supply  his  drooping  spirits. 

The  Indian  women  of  Cuzco,  who  abound  on  every 
side,  wear  a  very  full  skirt  of  hand-woven  wool,  reach- 
ing to  their  bare,  brown  ankles.  Many  dresses  have 
a  border  of  a  contrasting  colour.  They  are  particu- 
larly fond  of  all  shades  of  red,  from  the  brightest 
cerise  to  the  deepest  cardinal,  and  over  their  shoulders 
they  wear  a  shawl  of  another  shade  of  red  or  brown. 
In  this  shawl  the  labouring  woman  carries  her  burden, 
whether  it  is  the  baby  or  the  vegetables  she  buys  from 
the  market,  or  the  chickens  she  is  delivering  to  a  Cuzco 
customer.  On  her  head  she  wears  a  flat  hat  with  an 
unturned  rim,  and  this  is  as  showy  as  she  can  afford. 
Many  of  these  hats  are  covered  with  tinsel  embroid- 
ery. Like  most  of  the  Cuzco  inhabitants  of  the  lower 
classes,  she  goes  barefoot  or  wears  a  crude  sandal. 
Skirts  are  added,  one  over  the  other,  according  to  the 
temperature,  and  one  is  reminded  of  the  saying  in 
common  use  in  China  as  to  the  degree  of  cold:  It  is 
"one-coat  weather,"  or  it  is  "five-coat  weather." 

Bathing  in  Cuzco  is  evidently  a  lost  art.  When  the 
rains  begin  during  the  first  week  of  November  it  has 
become  customary  in  modern  times  for  the  people  to 
take  their  annual  bath.  It  is  really  a  kind  of  "Fes- 
tival of  the  Bath,"  and  it  is  said  that  a  good  propor- 
tion of  the  inhabitants  get  pneumonia  as  a  result,  so 
unaccustomed  are  they  to  this  civilised  exercise.  The 
missionaries  will  tell  you  that  one  of  the  first  evidences 
of  a  man's  conversion  is  that  he  takes  a  bath. 

The  custom  of  bathing  is  not  popular  even  with  the 


142     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

better  classes  of  Cuzco,  the  people  connecting  the  con- 
tact with  water  almost  superstitiously  with  the  contrac- 
tion of  disease.  We  were  told  by  an  English  trained 
nurse  of  her  advice  to  a  woman  who  came  to  her  for 
medical  help.  The  nurse  prescribed  nine  baths  for 
the  patient,  and  the  obedient  Cuzconian  took  the  whole 
nine  in  one  day! 

The  Cuzco  market  will  not  soon  be  forgotten  by  the 
foreigner  who  sees  it.  It  is  fairly  alive  with  a  swarm- 
ing mass  of  picturesque  humanity,  composed  of  In- 
dians and  cholos  mixed  in  marvellous  promiscuity. 
Women  seem  to  be  the  owners  of  the  stalls,  their  wares 
being  placed  on  mats  on  the  ground.  All  manner  of 
vegetables  are  sold,  onions  and  red  peppers  predom- 
inating. Along  the  edges  of  the  market  place  are 
dry  goods  stalls,  the  wares  hanging  up  so  as  to  be 
plainly  visible  to  the  would-be  purchasers;  the  brown 
clay  jars  used  by  the  Indians,  some  of  them  copies  of 
the  old  vessels  found  in  the  Inca  graves,  are  everywhere 
for  sale. 

Fortune  tellers  abound  and  are  invariably  sur- 
rounded with  groups  of  women.  On  one  side  we  en- 
countered an  enterprising  Spaniard  who  had  set  up  a 
stall  where  his  trained  birds  at  his  call  pick  out  a  small 
envelope  for  sefior  or  senorita,  which  is  supposed  to 
contain  infallible  destiny.  There  are  little  religious 
punch  and  judy  shows  from  which  the  Church  reaps 
considerable  profit,  while  on  all  sides  are  beggars,  and 
small,  keen-eyed  cholo  boys  who  follow  the  tourist,  of- 
fering their  services  as  guides  and  repeating  the  mon- 
strous exaggerations  concerning  Cuzconian  relics. 
These  little  urchins  are  very  clever,  and  they  know 


CUZCO  AND  THE  INCAS  OF  TO-DAY      143 

that  the  foreigner  is  looking  for  antiquities;  conse- 
quently everything  they  show  one  is  "antigua,  muy 
antigua."  One  clever  little  chap  followed  us  around 
the  market,  and  noticing  that  we  stopped  to  examine 
a  basket  of  ordinary  black  beans,  which  are  one  of  the 
chief  articles  of  diet,  came  up  to  us  with  a  serious  look 
on  his  face,  but  with  a  roguish  twinkle  in  his  black 
eyes,  took  up  one  of  the  beans  and  said,  "Antigua, 
muy  antigua,  senor!" 

No  one  can  remain  long*  in  Cuzco  without  realis- 
ing that  this  city  was  the  seat  of  the  Inca  religion,  a 
city  filled  with  temples  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  the 
celestial  luminaries.  It  was  to  Cuzco  that  the  entire 
Inca  population  journeyed  on  pilgrimages  for  worship, 
much  as  the  Mohammedans  to-day  travel  to  Mecca, 
and  Hindus  to  the  shore  of  their  Mother  Ganges. 
Upon  these  temples  was  showered  the  largess  of  the 
entire  land,  and  the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  which  had  few 
rivals  in  its  richness  and  glorious  worship,  was  justly 
called  "The  Place  of  Gold."  Although  there  are  re- 
mains of  many  temples  in  and  about  Cuzco,  the  Temple 
of  the  Sun  is  of  predominant  interest.  A  portion  of 
the  original  wall  is  standing,  and  the  mediaeval-looking 
monks  who  show  you  about  preserve  something  of 
the  ancient  romance  and  glory  clinging  to  this  Cuzco 
temple. 

A  vivid  picture  of  the  extravagant  richness  of  the 
Temple  of  the  Sun  has  been  given  by  Prescott,  the 
historian: 

"The  interior  of  the  temple  was  the  most  worthy  of 
admiration.  It  was  of  enormous  dimensions,  thickly 
powdered  with  emeralds  and  precious  stones.     It  was 


144      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

so  situated  in  front  of  the  great  eastern  portal  that 
the  rays  of  the  morning  sun  fell  directly  upon  it  at 
rising,  lighting  up  the  whole  apartment  with  an  efful- 
gence that  seemed  more  than  natural,  and  which  was 
reflected  back  from  the  golden  ornaments  with  which 
the  walls  and  ceilings  were  everywhere  incrusted. 

"Gold,  in  the  figurative  language  of  the  people,  was 
'the  tears  wept  by  the  sun,*  and  every  part  of  the  in- 
terior of  the  temple  glowed  with  burnished  plates  and 
studs  of  the  precious  metal.  The  cornices  which  sur- 
rounded the  wall  of  the  sanctuary  were  of  the  same 
costly  material,  and  a  broad  belt  or  frieze  of  gold  let 
into  the  stone  work  encompassed  the  whole  exterior  of 
the  edifice." 

It  seemed  the  irony  of  conquest  that  this  resplendent 
golden  image  of  the  sun,  which  had  looked  down  upon 
countless  generations,  should  have  been  ruthlessly  gam- 
bled away  in  a  night  by  one  of  the  Spanish  cavaliers  to 
whom  this  treasure  fell  as  his  share  of  the  looted 
temple.  Even  to-day  a  typical  gambler  in  Spain  is 
described  in  a  proverb  as  one  who  follows  the  Span- 
ish adventurer  Leguizano:  "He  plays  away  the  sun 
before  sunrise." 

Not  only  in  the  ruins  of  these  ancient  temples,  but 
in  almost  every  turn  in  the  narrow  cobblestone  streets 
in  Cuzco,  one  is  reminded  of  the  sad  story,  written  in 
blood,  the  story  of  the  iron  conquest  of  Inca  Peru  by 
the  heroic  but  conscienceless  knight  errants  of  the  Span- 
ish sixteenth  century.  Yet  the  place  which  the  trav- 
eller will  be  shown  to-day,  where  the  Pizarros  be- 
headed the  Inca  lords  and  nobles,  was  also  the  tragic 
place  of  decapitation  of  the  losing  Spanish  adventur- 
ers, Almagro,  his  son  and  his  lieutenants,  who  were 


CUZCO  AND  THE  INCAS  OF  TO-DAY      145 

worsted  in  their  mad  search  for  gold.  Cuzco  was  the 
particular  scene  of  the  arch  barbarity  and  fraud  per- 
petrated upon  these  peaceful  inhabitants  by  the  Con- 
quistadores,  who  have  left  a  stain  never  to  be  effaced 
from  Spanish  arms  in  the  New  World.  Few  adven- 
turers have  equalled  in  courage,  capacity  or  cruelty  the 
Pizarros,  but  the  glitter  of  the  gold  on  the  Cuzco  tem- 
ples proved  to  be  for  them  and  for  their  descendants 
but  the  shell  of  the  pearl  of  great  price;  and  Spain 
to-day  is  revealing  the  sign  of  this  distorted  strain  of 
humanity,  reaping  her  reward  as  one  of  the  backward 
and  impoverished  nations. 

No  one  can  journey  through  this  land  of  the  In- 
cas,  behold  the  great  roads  and  aqueducts,  see  the 
scarred  faces  of  the  mountains  which  were  in  other 
centuries  cultivated  to  the  very  summits,  realising  that 
the  irrigation  of  the  present  day  is  still  carried  through 
the  trenches  that  old  Inca  hands  prepared,  without 
feeling  a  high  sense  of  respect  for  this  people,  who 
antedated  the  Spanish  conquest  and,  in  many  respects, 
were  superior  to  their  victors.  In  those  ancient  days 
such  vices  as  now  fasten  themselves  upon  the  Indians 
and  have  become  their  second  nature  were  virtually 
unknown.  Lying,  stealing  and  adultery  were  punish- 
able by  death  in  the  Inca  reign.  Instead  of  the  pres- 
ent condition  of  drunkenness  and  sloth  too  apparent 
in  many  of  the  Indian  communities,  the  old  ancestry 
showed  sobriety  and  an  industry  that  rarely  has  had 
its  equal  anywhere  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Is  it  to 
be  wondered  that  one  finds  certain  old  families  or  tribes 
directly  descendant  from  the  Inca  kings  holding  them- 
selves proudly  aloof  and  bearing  in  their  faces  and 


146      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

general  attitude  a  conscious  dignity  of  lineage?  These 
disdain  to  have  association  with  the  diluted  stock  that 
now  so  largely  has  become  the  servile  vassal  of  the 
semi-white  man. 

The  brown  faces  of  the  Indians  who  follow  their 
llamas  through  the  dusty  streets  of  Cuzco  give  food 
for  thought.  They  are  dark,  sorrowful,  sombre  faces, 
and  reflect  the  unspeakable  tragedies  that  the  last  four 
centuries  have  wrought  upon  the  natures  of  a  once 
noble  race  of  men.  These  people  efface  themselves  in 
the  presence  of  the  white  man,  turning  out  to  give  him 
space,  as  a  pariah  might  make  a  wide  circle  around 
a  Brahmin  in  India.  They  work  for  twenty-five  cents 
a  day,  or  are  impressed  for  long  periods  of  labour 
for  the  price  of  the  coca  leaves  and  alcohol  that  the 
land-owner  or  the  gangster  may  give  them.  This  long- 
suffering  race,  upon  which  all  Peru  lives  at  present, 
and  upon  whose  ignorance  and  superstition  unworthy 
ministers  of  the  Roman  Church  thrive  and  grow  ar- 
rogant; these  are  the  tillers  of  the  soil  and  keepers  of 
sheep  and  alpaca  on  the  cold,  windy  slopes  of  the 
pampas,  where  white  men  cannot  live.  They  dwell 
in  vermin-infested  huts  that  are  breeding  places  of  ty- 
phus and  a  dozen  deadly  forms  of  human  destruction, 
seeing  ninety  per  cent  of  their  children  die  before  they 
are  two  years  of  age.  These  are  the  sad  descendants 
of  those  200,000  Incas,  who  inhabited  Cuzco  when 
Pizarro  came  to  loot  and  to  kill,  and  carry  away  out 
of  the  Cuzco  temples  alone  $100,000,000  in  gold  treas- 
ure, giving  in  return  a  destiny  of  labour  and  slavery, 
which  one  day  will  rise  to  haunt  and  besmirch  the  name 
of  Spain. 


CUZCO  AND  THE  INCAS  OF  TO-DAY      147 

In  the  cathedral,  and,  in  fact,  in  all  of  the  forty  or 
more  churches  of  Cuzco,  where  barely  20,000  inhab- 
itants now  remain  of  the  once  populous  city,  the  trav- 
eller will  see  the  pathetic  vision  of  the  Indian  bowing 
till  his  head  touches  the  stone  floor,  his  face  a  study  of 
abject  fear  and  ignorant  awe.  For  several  -mornings 
we  were  awakened  at  an  early  hour  in  our  hotel  in 
Cuzco  by  the  din  of  explosives  about  a  church  near 
at  hand.  Upon  inquiring  the  cause  of  such  celebra- 
tion, we  were  informed  by  an  old  resident  of  the  place 
that  this  was  a  feast  given  by  a  certain  Indian  who 
had  been  selected  by  the  priests  to  be  honoured  by 
paying  the  expenses  of  several  days  of  festivities,  in 
which  a  large  number  of  people  joined.  The  cost  of 
this  ornate  and  noisy  festival  was  upwards  of  $250, 
and  the  Indian  [to  whom  this  amount  represents  a 
fortune]  was  obliged  to  borrow  and  also  use  all  his 
life's  savings.  It  meant  placing  himself  in  slavish 
bondage  for  the  remainder  of  his  days,  in  order  to  be 
thus  honoured  in  the  name  of  religion. 

"But  if  he  should  refuse  to  comply  with  this  request 
from  the  priest?"  I  asked.  "Oh,"  was  the  answer, 
"he  would  not  dare  to  refuse,  and  if  he  did  his  lot 
could  be  made  unbearable." 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  scales  of  justice  seem  to 
have  been  held  so  unevenly  by  his  rulers  in  Peru,  the 
strength  of  the  race  is  revealed  in  many  ways.  On  this 
small  bit  of  land  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  high  ranges 
about  the  City  of  the  Sun,  the  Indian  lives  an  inde- 
pendent and  often  a  happy  existence.  He  raises  maize 
and  potatoes  on  the  uplands,  and  in  the  valleys,  watered 
by  mountain  streams  and  warmed  by  the  wonderful 


148      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

half-tropic  sun  (for  Cuzco  is  only  thirteen  degrees 
south  of  the  equator),  he  harvests  his  oranges  and 
coca  and  the  many  vegetables  which  he  brings  across 
the  long  trails  to  sell  at  the  Cuzco  market.  Indeed, 
there  were  few  visions  more  impressive  to  me  in  this 
region  than  the  sight  of  waving  fields  of  barley  and 
thriving  potato  patches,  grown  successfully  on  these 
Alpine  heights  12,000  feet  above  the  sea,  in  plain  view 
of  mountains  wreathed  with  eternal  snow.  Nature  at 
least  has  not  abandoned  the  South  American  Indian. 
She  has  left  him  his  herds  of  llamas,  his  fawn-coloured 
vicunas,  his  merinos  and  alpacas,  animals  which  refuse 
to  thrive  below  the  wind-swept,  dreary  moors  of  the 
Sierra  desolation;  and  there  about  his  thatched  adobe 
hut  he  folds  his  precious  animal  companions  in  rude 
farmyards  fenced  with  stones. 

Scattered  on  the  slopes  of  the  Sierras  are  occasional 
villages  composed  of  these  thatched  huts,  of  which  the 
little  town  of  Asquia  Alta  is  a  typical  example.  Its 
name  is  taken  from  the  irrigation  trenches  through 
which  the  water  flows  on  either  side  of  the  narrow 
streets,  fed  from  the  melting  mountain  snows  far  back 
in  the  Sierra  range.  This  primitive  settlement — 
"High  Water" — was  more  interesting  to  me  than  the 
cities,  for  here  one  sees  life  as  it  was  far  back  in  the 
days  of  the  Incas.  It  is  a  page  out  of  the  Book  of  the 
Past,  and  its  writing  is  printed  deep  on  the  lineaments 
of  the  people,  as  upon  their  customs  and  dwellings. 
The  very  animals  have  a  prehistoric  look;  and  as  we 
walk  through  tortuous  lanes  that  serve  for  streets  to 
divide  the  straw-thatched  homes,  they  gaze  at  us  stu- 
pidly, with  the  wonder  of  other  centuries  in  their  eyes. 


CUZCO  AND  THE  INCAS  OF  TO-DAY      149 

The  houses — can  we  call  them  homes? — consist 
usually  of  a  single  room,  mud  floors,  no  windows,  an 
aperture  serving  as  a  door  which  is  often  little  more 
than  the  mouth  of  a  cave.  One  must  stoop  to  enter, 
and  then  a  strange  miscellany  greets  one,  a  lot  of 
primitive  pots  and  kettles  in  the  corner  around  a  smok- 
ing fire  built  around  three  stones.  At  cooking  times, 
there  being  no  chimneys,  the  place  reeks  with  the  min- 
gled smoke  and  odour  of  burning  flesh.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  walk  circumspectly  lest  one  step  on  a  sprawling 
baby,  or  get  tangled  up  with  several  dogs,  chickens, 
or  snoring  pigs — all  of  which  claim  their  common 
rights  with  the  numerous  members  of  the  family  to 
the  promiscuous  domesticity.  These  cholo  huts,  which 
serve  as  coverts  from  the  cold  of  the  South  American 
winters,  are  chiefly  bedrooms  and  kitchens  and  stables 
— ensemble — for  as  soon  as  the  sun  of  the  tropics, 
which  these  people's  ancestors  worship  for  good  and 
sufficient  cause,  floods  the  narrow  defiles  of  these  moun- 
tain villages,  every  one  is  out  of  doors.  The  stronger 
members  of  the  families,  both  men  and  women,  are  off 
to  the  fields  with  their  mules  whose  sides  contain  the 
machetes  and  farming  utensils,  while  the  doorways  are 
black  with  children  of  all  ages  and  degrees  of  filthi- 
ness.  Here  and  there  is  an  old  Indian  woman  mend- 
ing a  poncho,  or  a  mother  with  a  nursing  infant  at  her 
breast.  A  walk  through  the  streets  of  Asquia  Alta 
is  like  walking  in  a  dream.  There  is  absolutely  noth- 
ing to  suggest  anything  with  which  you  have  been  fa- 
miliar save  the  gurgling  rush  of  the  water  in  the  irri- 
gation trenches  and  the  penetrating  warmth  of  the 
blazing  sun  upon  your  head. 


150      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

These  little  Peruvian  villages  are  not  without  their 
gladness  and  amusements,  and  almost  every  other  one 
of  the  adobe  huts  flies  a  flag  from  its  roof  to  signify 
that  chicha  and  piquante  are  to  be  enjoyed  there;  the 
first  is  a  drink  made  out  of  corn,  while  the  second  is  a 
kind  of  stew  made  of  vegetables  and  highly  seasoned 
with  red  peppers.  These  small  eating  and  drinking 
houses  remind  one  of  the  coffee  houses  of  the  Arabs  in 
North  Africa.  The  primitive  surroundings  are  sim- 
ilar, the  people  sitting  without  lights  save  perhaps  the 
feeble  flame  of  a  candle,  which  casts  flickering  shad- 
ows on  the  dark  faces  of  the  men  about  the  small,  low 
table  upon  which  stand  the  large  chicha  glasses. 

Sunset  hour,  or  "cow  dust  time,,,  marked  the  por- 
tion of  the  day  when  I  enjoyed  most  sauntering  through 
the  lanes  and  narrow  trails  that  stood  for  streets  in 
Asquia  Alta.  Diminutive  burros  loaded  with  great 
bundles  of  maize,  the  national  food  of  the  Indian  and 
the  cholo  of  the  high  altitudes  of  Peru,  patter  along 
in  single  file  through  the  dusty  paths  that  lead  from 
the  fields.  The  farmer  whom  we  saw  a  while  ago 
ploughing  the  steep  hillside  with  a  crooked  stick,  now 
appears  over  the  brow  of  a  hill,  driving  his  faithful 
oxen  home  for  the  night,  he  himself  carrying  the  yoke. 
Every  door  is  filled  with  children,  who,  with  the  women 
and  innumerable  dogs,  stand  to  greet  the  toilers  com- 
ing home  from  the  mountain  farms,  tilled  in  the  self- 
same manner  by  the  ancient  Inca  ancestors  centuries 
before.  The  six  o'clock  bells  in  the  distant  cathedral 
at  Arequipa  are  sounding  the  hour  of  evening  prayer, 
and  for  a  moment  the  tired  peasants  halt  with  uncov- 
ered heads.     The  little  village  is  growing  dark  rap- 


CUZCO  AND  THE  INCAS  OF  TO-DAY      151 

idly  now,  though  the  wonderful  semi-tropical  sun  is 
painting  the  great  guarding  El  Misti  at  the  east  of  the 
town  with  one  last  golden  wave  of  light.  In  another 
half  hour  our  mountain  hamlet  will  have  lost  its  in- 
spiration to  live,  for  the  sun  which  the  old  Incas  wor- 
shiped will  have  changed  watch  with  the  cold  night 
winds  that  sweep  down  from  the  snowy  summits  of  the 
Andes. 

Already  the  inhabitants  shiver  along  the  winding 
streets  clad  in  their  red  ponchos.  You  can  begin  to 
hear  the  doors  of  the  rude  abiding  places  which  these 
people  call  "home,"  being  pushed  together  for  the 
night  (for  sundown  is  bedtime  in  the  Cordilleras). 
As  you  pass  down  through  the  empty  streets,  the  si- 
lence of  the  hill  town  is  only  broken  by  the  bark  of  a 
dog  or  the  cry  of  a  child  on  the  borderland  of  dreams. 
Weary  hard  working  peasant  Asquia  Alta  is  being 
hushed  to  the  dreamless  sleep  of  tired  bodies  by  the 
lullaby  of  the  singing  waters — waters  that  flow  by  the 
thatched  huts  in  the  irrigation  trenches  from  the  eter- 
nal snows  that  freeze  and  melt  on  the  peaks  of  the 
distant  Andes. 

There  may  be  somewhere  in  the  world  more  prim- 
itive pastoral  villages  than  those  the  traveller  finds  upon 
the  sunlit  sides  of  the  towering  Cordilleras ;  but  I  have 
found  no  sections  of  the  earth  where  the  life  of  na- 
tional peasantry  is  more  captivatingly  picturesque, 
where  Time  seems  to  have  stopped  in  its  course,  in  or- 
der to  remind  us  of  days  that  are  dead. 


CHAPTER  X 

LAWS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  INCAS  OF  PERU 

When  Manco  Capac  pledged  the  Spanish  Commander  in  a 
golden  goblet  of  the  sparkling  Chicha,  the  humiliation  rather 
than  the  triumph  of  the  Peruvian  Incas  was  impressive.  The 
armed  foot  of  the  conqueror  trod  the  Cuzco  streets.  It  was  the 
death  knell  of  the  glory  of  the  children  of  the  Sun.  The 
annunciation  was  a  sad  and  miserable  pageant.  The  soldiers 
of  the  Cross  had  vanquished  the  children  of  the  Sun — a  doubt- 
ful exchange. — Prescott. 

AMONG  the  ancient  populations  of  the  South 
American  countries  the  Incas  of  Peru  and  the 
Aztecs  of  Mexico  are  of  the  greatest  interest,  both  be- 
cause of  what  they  accomplished  in  the  way  of  civilisa- 
tion, and  also  by  reason  of  the  influences  they  exerted 
on  the  generations  following.  No  one  can  appreciate 
truly  Peruvian  life  and  customs,  without  a  knowledge 
of  the  old  races  which  were  conquered  but  not  an- 
nihilated by  the  Spanish  cavaliers.  These  Indians  who 
still  make  up  half  of  Peru's  present  day  population, 
were  descended  from  this  old  Inca  stock,  and  their  cus- 
toms and  the  country  they  inhabit  reflect  on  all  sides 
the  powerful  farce  of  this  ancient  culture. 

Like  the  Aztecs  in  the  North,  the  Incas  chose  as 
their  chief  seats  of  empire  the  elevated  tablelands  of 
«he  great  mountain  ranges  that  have  had  such  dete*- 

152 


LAWS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  INCAS     153 

mining  influence  upon  the  inhabitants  of  these  coun- 
tries. Those  who  by  chance  are  interested  students 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  configuration  of  the  land 
has  been  reflected  in  the  character  of  the  people  whose 
lot  has  been  cast  upon  it,  will  find  rich  material  for 
study  in  South  America. 

The  Incas  differed  from  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico  in 
their  military  laws  and  life,  showing  far  less  philosophy 
and  a  greater  display  of  common  humanity  towards 
prisoners  taken  in  war.  The  Inca  realm,  indeed,  was 
a  benevolent  and  patriarchal  monarchy  in  which  the 
Inca  lord  and  his  nobles  surrounded  their  subjects  with 
a  kind  of  parental  solicitude,  claiming  from  them  in 
return  absolute  obedience  and  the  readiness  to  obey 
commands  of  whatever  sort  imposed  upon  them  by 
the  government. 

The  Incas  were  more  or  less  constantly  in  war,  sub- 
jecting to  their  organised  and  complicated  scheme  of 
government  the  ruder  tribes  on  their  borders.  They 
showed  remarkable  interest  in  combining  these  con- 
quered nations  in  the  Peruvian  monarchy,  and  were 
careful  to  warn  their  soldiers  against  committing  un- 
necessary outrages  on  the  persons  or  the  property  of 
the  tribes  conquered.  One  of  the  Peruvian  princes  is 
quoted  as  saying,  "We  must  spare  our  enemies  or  it 
will  be  our  loss,  since  they  and  all  that  belongs  to  them 
must  soon  be  ours."  Like  the  ancient  Romans,  the 
Incas  are  said  to  have  gained  quite  as  much  by  the 
policy  of  clemency  as  by  the  victory  of  arms. 

Military  service  was  virtually  compulsory  among 
the  Incas,  every  Peruvian  having  reached  a  certain  age 
being  likely  to  be  called  to  bear  arms.     Several  times 


154      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

each  month  there  were  regular  drills  held  for  the  in- 
habitants of  the  villages,  and  the  soldiers  thus  trained 
made  altogether  a  force  amounting  to  at  least  200,000 
men.  These  troops  were  divided  into  bodies  similar 
to  the  modern  battalions  and  companies  and  the  of- 
ficers rose  in  rank  from  the  lowest  subaltern  to  the 
Inca  noble,  who  was  commander  in  chief  of  the  army. 
The  Inca  arms  used  against  the  Spaniards  at  the 
time  of  the  Conquest  consisted  chiefly  of  bows  and 
arrows,  darts,  lances,  battle  axes,  slings  and  a  short 
sword.  The  Incas  used  at  the  ends  of  their  spears 
and  arrows  copper  or  bone  points,  and  the  weapons 
of  the  Inca  lords  were  often  mounted  with  gold  or  sil- 
ver. On  their  heads  the  Indians  of  the  higher  orders 
wore  casques  made  of  wood  or  the  skins  of  wild  ani- 
mals, which  head  dress  was  usually  surmounted  by  the 
brilliant  plumage  of  birds.  The  ordinary  soldiery 
used  the  regulation  costume  of  the  provinces,  wearing 
a  turban  or  a  roll  of  different  coloured  cloths  about 
their  heads,  and  carrying  a  shield  or  buckler.  There 
was  also  worn  a  close  tunic  of  quilted  cotton  on  the 
part  of  the  soldiery.  The  ensign  under  which  these 
people  marched  to  battle  was  a  glittering  device  of 
the  rainbow,  suggestive  of  the  fact  that  these  were 
"Children  of  the  Skies."  The  soldiers  were  clothed 
and  fed  by  the  industry  of  the  people  and  any  viola- 
tion of  the  property  or  the  persons  of  the  inhabitants 
by  the  soldier,  was  punished  with  death.  Along  the 
great  roads  were  magazines  of  stores  filled  for  uses 
of  the  army,  and  which,  when  obtained  by  the  con- 
quering Spaniards,  maintained  the  armies  of  the  ad- 
venturers for  a  long  period.     In  spite  of  the  splendid 


LAWS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  INCAS     155 

organisation  of  the  Incas,  their  character  as  fighting 
men  was  greatly  inferior  to  the  Auracanians  of  Chile, 
who  even  yet,  as  it  is  commonly  reported,  have  never 
been  actually  conquered  by  the  white  man. 

In  the  matter  of  religion  the  Incas  furnished  a  re- 
markable exhibition  of  a  people  whose  sovereign  was 
supposed  to  hold  a  divine  commission  and  to  be  pos- 
sessed of  a  divine  nature.  The  violation  of  the  law, 
therefore,  was  not  only  to  insult  the  majesty  of  the 
throne,  but  it  was  also  sacrilege.  The  worship  of  the 
Sun  was  the  central  principle  of  the  Inca  religious  pol- 
ity, and  their  belief  approximated  more  nearly  to  a 
spiritual  worship  than  did  that  of  any  other  Indian 
nation  of  South  America. 

It  was,  however,  in  the  agricultural  and  mechanical 
arts,  together  with  the  laws  that  made  for  the  social 
inter-relations  of  the  Incas  and  their  followers,  that 
this  nation  is  particularly  worthy  of  study  by  those  in- 
terested in  the  making  of  states. 

The  laws  were  comparatively  few  and  simple  be- 
cause the  country  was  owned  by  the  government  and 
the  right  of  really  owning  property  was  denied  to  the 
inhabitants.  The  whole  territory  of  the  Inca  Empire 
was  divided  into  three  parts — one  portion  for  the 
Sun,  another  for  the  Inca  or  the  ruler,  and  the  last 
for  the  people.  The  revenue  of  the  lands  of  the  Sun 
was  used  for  the  support  of  the  religious  observances, 
the  building  of  temples,  and  for  a  priesthood  of  vast 
numbers.  The  Inca's  lands  brought  him  vast  riches, 
and  these  were  used  by  him  for  the  exigencies  of  the 
government ;  one  chronicler  maintains  that  virtually  all 


156      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

that  he  received  went  back  to  the  people  and  to  the 
country  for  their  general  welfare. 

The  people's  land  was  divided  per  capita  in  equal 
shares.  Each  newly  married  couple  was  given,  accord- 
ing to  Garcilasso,  a  "fanega"  and  a  half  of  land;  a 
"fanega"  being  as  much  land  as  could  be  planted  with 
a  hundredweight  of  Indian  corn.  A  similar  quan- 
tity was  added  for  each  male  child  born  and  half  the 
quantity  for  each  female.  We  found  in  the  region  of 
Cuzco  that  this  custom  was  still  followed  in  part,  the 
landlord  using  similar  measures  in  apportioning  the 
maize-raising  land  situated  in  the  valleys. 

No  more  effectual  agrarian  law  has  been  known  in 
history  than  that  by  which  the  Peruvians  built  up  their 
vast,  well  regulated  agricultural  realm.  There  was  a 
reapportionment  of  land  each  year,  but  as  a  rule,  it  was 
said  that  the  people  were  allowed  to  remain  upon  their 
own  land,  which  to  all  intents  and  purposes  was  as  good 
as  ownership. 

The  cultivation  of  the  lands  of  the  Inca  which  was 
accomplished  by  the  entire  population  in  a  body,  par- 
took more  of  a  festival  than  of  the  work-a-day  world. 
The  inhabitants  were  summoned  at  daybreak  by  a  proc- 
lamation from  some  great  eminence  and  men,  women 
and  children,  dressed  in  their  finest  apparel,  and  orna- 
mented according  to  their  love  of  display,  gathered  to- 
gether as  to  a  jubilee.  They  went  through  the  labours 
of  the  day,  to  the  music  of  their  popular  chants  and 
ballads  commemorating  the  heroic  deeds  of  their  il- 
lustrious Incas.  Many  of  these  soft  and  beautiful  na- 
tional airs  were  set  to  music  by  the  Spaniards  after 
the  conquest. 


LAWS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  INCAS     157 

It  must  not  be  thought,  however,  that  this  Inca  des- 
potism, patriarchal  and  mild  as  it  may  seem  from  one 
point  of  view,  was  lacking  in  the  rigorous  execution 
of  its  laws.  Punishment  was  quick  and  to  the  point 
and  the  death  penalty  was  inflicted  for  crimes  of  theft, 
murder,  adultery,  blasphemy  against  the  Sun,  and 
malediction  of  the  Inca. 

To  burn  a  bridge  was  also  an  act  punishable  by 
death,  while  removing  landmarks,  or  turning  away 
from  a  neighbour's  land  for  one's  own  benefit  the  water 
that  flowed  down  from  the  mountains  in  the  wonder- 
fully well  made  irrigation  trenches,  brought  down  upon 
the  victim's  head  severe  punishment.  Of  all  crimes  re- 
bellion against  the  "Child  of  the  Sun"  was  the  supreme 
one,  and  a  city  or  province  that  thus  arose  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  sovereign  of  the  land,  was  immediately  laid 
waste  and  its  inhabitants  destroyed.  It  must  be  added 
that  the  infliction  of  the  punishments  by  the  Incas  was 
far  less  ferocious  and  attended  with  less  cruelty  than 
was  the  case  with  the  Aztecs.  The  execution  of  the 
laws  in  this  regard  by  these  ancient  peoples,  compares 
favourably  with  the  destructive  violence  of  their  Span- 
ish conquerors. 

It  was  the  aim  of  the  Inca,  as  it  was  for  so  many 
generations  with  the  Moslem,  to  forcibly  convert  at  the 
point  of  the  sword  the  nations  which  he  vanquished. 
It  seemed  usual  also  that  nations  thus  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  the  mild,  and  in  many  respects,  beautiful 
worship  of  the  Incas  who  associated  the  heavenly  bod- 
ies with  a  deep  religious  awe,  became  irretrievably  at- 
tached to  this  religion.  It  was  a  long  time  before  the 
Roman  Catholic  Spaniards  were  able  to  gain  much 


158      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

inroad  upon  the  religion  of  the  Incas  who  failed  to 
see  in  the  belief  of  their  conquerors  indications  of  a 
more  desirable  faith  than  that  which  they  themselves 
professed.  According  to  custom  it  was  usual  for  the 
Spanish  inquisitors  of  these  early  days  to  present,  with 
a  doubtful  show  of  benevolence,  their  faith  as  the  last 
resort  for  the  members  of  the  Inca  nobility,  whom  they 
sacrificed  often  with  cruel  death-penalties  in  the  midst 
of  their  own  people.  Atahuallpa,  the  reigning  Inca 
who  was  treacherously  entrapped  and  killed  by  Pi- 
zarro,  when  led  out  to  his  execution  was  accompanied 
by  a  friar  who  tried  to  convince  him  of  the  advantage 
of  the  Christian  faith.  The  dignified  and  supreme 
head  of  these  mountain  people  was  as  calm  and  unruf- 
fled in  the  hour  of  death  as  in  the  day  of  his  reigning 
prosperity;  shortly  before  the  dissolution  of  his  vast 
empire,  he  spoke  thus  to  the  friar  of  Pizarro : 

"For  my  faith,  I  will  not  change  it.  Your  own  God, 
as  you  say,  was  put  to  death  by  the  very  men  whom  he 
created,  but  mine,"  said  he  pointing  to  his  Deity,  then 
sinking  in  glory  behind  the  Cordilleras,  "My  God  still 
lives  in  the  heavens,  and  looks  down  upon  his  children.'* 

The  Incas'  philosophy  concerning  success  and  happi- 
ness in  life  revolved  around  the  two  principles  of  la- 
bour and  religion.  Every  member  of  this  kingdom  was 
obliged  to  work,  and  idleness  was  a  crime  in  the  eye  of 
the  law.  It  is  notable  that  there  were  no  mendicants, 
and  there  is  no  record  of  a  famine  in  Peru  in  Inca 
times.  The  government  made  work  for  the  people  to 
assure  their  constant  industry.  It  built  great  roads 
upon  which  the  traveller  may  now  journey  in  the  moun- 


LAWS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  INCAS     159 

tainous  sections  of  the  country,  and  obliged  the  inhab- 
itants to  carry  stones  for  their  dwellings  and  thorough- 
fares from  Cuzco  to  Quito,  a  service  that  in  these  times 
was  attended  with  almost  insuperable  difficulty  but 
which  helped  to  keep  the  nation  busy.  Some  of  these 
roads  are  estimated  as  being  built  from  1500  to  2000 
miles  in  length,  and  were  carefully  organised  by  posts 
along  the  entire  distance,  at  a  distance  of  less  than  five 
miles  from  each  other.  By  means  of  these  post  houses, 
remains  of  which  may  still  be  seen,  information  could 
be  carried  to  the  Inca  ruler  from  the  most  remote  sec- 
tion of  his  wide  domain  by  swift  runners,  who  were 
called  "chasquis,"  at  the  rate  of  150  miles  a  day. 

The  marriage  customs  were  unique,  an  annual  day 
of  the  year  being  set  apart  for  marriage.  Males  of 
twenty-four  years  of  age  and  women  of  eighteen  or 
twenty  were  called  together  in  the  great  square  of  their 
respective  towns  and  villages  throughout  the  Empire. 
The  Inca  presided  in  person  over  the  assembly  of  his 
own  kindred,  and  placing  their  hands  together  de- 
clared them  man  and  wife,  while  lesser  officials  offici- 
ated in  a  similar  way  in  the  different  districts.  The 
consent  of  the  parents  was  deemed  necessary  to  make 
the  marriage  valid,  and  the  preference  of  the  parties 
was  considered.  The  government  provided  the  dwell- 
ing and  the  prescribed  portion  of  land  for  the  newly 
married  couple,  and  the  days  associated  with  the  an- 
nual marriage  period  were  filled  with  festivities;  irf 
short  as  one  historian  has  put  it,  "There  was  one  uni- 
versal bridal  jubilee  throughout  the  Empire.'* 

The  Inca  ruler  was  allowed  larger  latitude,  and 
like  the  ancient  Mohammedan  rulers,  counted  his  wives 


160      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

and  concubines  by  the  hundreds,  the  most  beautiful 
women  of  the  Empire  being  honoured  to  become  mem- 
bers of  the  royal  household.  It  was  also  the  custom 
here,  as  in  old  days  in  India,  for  many  of  the  wives  of 
the  Inca  to  immolate  themselves  upon  his  bier  at  the 
time  of  his  death. 

The  analogy  of  many  of  these  customs  and  laws  to 
those  of  the  Chinese  and  Hindus  is  striking,  and 
would  seem  to  give  reason  for  the  belief  of  many  that 
these  people  had  "an  Asiatic  cradle -land."  The  des- 
potic government  resembled  eastern  Asia;  the  patri- 
archal sway  of  the  sovereign,  together  with  the  im- 
plicit obedience  to  authority,  the  reverence  for  ancient 
usage,  and  the  invincible  patience  were  not  unlike  tra- 
ditions of  the  Chinese  race. 

Their  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  ele- 
ments of  nature,  and  especially  their  division  into 
castes,  find  abundant  analogies  in  Hindustan,  while 
their  pottery,  their  construction  of  buildings  by  the 
use  of  enormous  stones  fitted  by  hand,  and  their  atten- 
tion to  the  preservation  of  the  bodies  of  their  rulers 
after  death,  reveal  considerable  resemblance  to  the 
ways  and  methods  of  the  ancient  Egyptians. 

The  characteristics  of  the  Incas  of  Peru  were  most 
divergent  from  the  traits  and  the  ideals  found  in  North 
America,  in  the  absolute  and  unmitigated  control  ex- 
ercised by  the  rulers  over  their  subjects.  The  Empire 
of  this  ancient  race  rested  upon  the  Inca  as  both  the 
law  giver  and  the  law.  He  was  the  servant  and  rep- 
resentative of  Divinity;  indeed,  he  was  Divinity  itself 
to  these  people.  There  has  seldom  been  a  scheme  of 
government  in  the  history  of  men  enforced  with  such 


LAWS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  INCAS     161 

sovereign  sanction  or  penetrating  more  oppressively, 
as  it  would  seem  to  an  independent  mind,  into  the  pri- 
vate and  domestic  conduct  of  its  vassals.  To  be  sure 
there  was  commiseration  such  as  a  parent  might  have 
for  its  impotent  offspring,  but  the  power  of  free 
agency  which  has  been  considered  usually  to  be  the  in- 
born and  inalienable  right  of  every  human  being,  and 
without  which  morality  can  hardly  exist,  was  utterly  an- 
nihilated by  this  system  of  government.  It  is  notable 
that  with  all  the  advances  which  this  national  life  in- 
augurated, the  Empire  of  the  Incas,  perhaps  the  most 
absolute  despotism  known  to  history,  has  passed  away; 
meanwhile  the  other  type  of  government  based  on  the 
individual  capacity  and  freedom  of  human  beings  to 
work  out  for  themselves  the  problem  of  existence,  is 
still  increasing  its  sway  around  the  world.  There  are 
some  who  would  attribute  this  absence  of  the  sense  of 
personal  rights  and  the  presence  of  a  slavish  obedience 
to  authority,  as  the  chief  reasons  for  the  easy  fall  of 
this  Empire  before  a  handful  of  Spanish  adventur- 
ers, who  represented  in  every  fibre  of  their  being  the 
principle  of  individual  initiative  and  courageous  inde- 
pendent action. 

The  traveller  who  goes  through  Peru  to-day  and 
meets  on  the  old  broad  Inca  highways  the  sad  and 
often  sullen-faced  Indian,  will  attribute  the  woes  of 
these  people  to  the  misgovernment  of  modern  Span- 
ish Peru.  Undoubtedly  one  will  be  right  in  believing 
that  far  too  little  attention  has  been  given  to  the  de- 
scendants of  this  early  race  of  aborigines  on  the  part 
of  their  modern  conquerors.  Yet  we  can  not  but  be- 
lieve that  the  far  away  root  of  their  servility  and  sub- 


162      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

servience  lies  in  those  seeds  of  absolute  and  unadul- 
terated sovereignty  planted  in  the  hearts  of  their  an- 
cestors many  centuries  ago. 

The  crying  need  in  modern  Peru  as  far  as  the  In- 
dians at  least  are  concerned,  is  that  of  reawakening 
through  education  and  a  virile  religion,  the  dormant 
principles  of  humanity  in  the  breast  of  the  Indian, 
elements  which  through  all  time  have  differentiated  an 
independent  self  respecting  individual  from  a  slavish 
vassal.  The  task  of  Peru  is  to  change  these  latter  day 
"Children  of  the  Sun"  from  beasts  of  burden  into 
men. 

The  question  persists  in  the  minds  of  those  who 
travel  throughout  Peru  to-day — how  can  a  country  be- 
come great  when  half  of  its  inhabitants  are  the  sad- 
dest-faced men  to  be  found  in  the  world?  We  have 
wandered  considerably  about  Peru  and  we  have  seen 
the  Indian  in  his  home,  at  his  work  in  the  fields,  driv- 
ing his  llamas  along  the  mountain  roads.  We  have 
seen  him  in  his  restaurants  and  in  his  rest  houses,  and 
we  have  never  seen  him  laugh.  With  his  heavy  bur- 
den on  his  back  and  his  stolid,  brown,  expressionless 
face  looking  straight  ahead  of  him,  his  whole  appear- 
ance is  tragically  pathetic.  Yet  as  this  modern  child 
of  the  Sun  stops  at  the  crest  of  the  hill  above  his  sa- 
cred city  of  Cuzco,  he  turns  towards  the  place  where 
the  Temple  of  his  Deity  once  stood,  and  taking  off  his 
vari-coloured  cap,  he  silently  murmurs  an  old  Inca 
prayer  before  he  takes  his  toilsome  way  across  the 
Cordilleras  to  his  mountain  home.  Although  the  cen- 
turies of  oppression  have  seemingly  crushed  to  earth 
the  manhood  of  the  Indian,  his  soul  is  still  alive.    He 


LAWS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  INCAS     163 

is  waiting  for  his  modern  conqueror  to  see  the  vision 
and  to  take  the  initiative  of  kindling  into  flame  the 
spark  that  is  left  within  his  bosom,  forming  out  of  the 
remnants  of  an  ancient  despotism  the  life  of  a  new 
republic. 


CHAPTER  XI 


CHILEAN  MEN 


THE  man  of  Chile  has  been  somewhat  more  for- 
tunate than  his  Peruvian  neighbour  in  the  mat- 
ter of  climate,  and  climate  has  more  to  do  with  the 
formation  of  national  characteristics  than  is  sometimes 
realised.  In  the  beautiful  city  of  Santiago,  where 
Chile  finds  her  leading  citizens,  four  hundred  thou- 
sand strong,  the  weather  during  the  winter  months  of 
June,  July  and  August,  rarely  is  colder  than  our  Oc- 
tober in  the  United  States,  while  the  remainder  of  the 
year  is  a  continuous  stretch  of  days  resembling  our 
Spring  or  Autumn.  If  the  people  of  this  conservative 
land  could  once  discover  the  comfort  derived  from 
steam  heat  in  their  houses  during  the  three  months  of 
the  year  when  the  air  is  crisp  and  the  houses  cold,  we 
can  think  of  no  portion  of  the  earth  where  climatic 
conditions  are  more  favourable  for  either  work  or 
play. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Chileans  seem  to  have  a 
kind  of  traditional,  almost  superstitious  dread  of 
heated  houses;  they  will  tell  you  that  if  the  houses  are 
heated  one  is  almost  certain  to  get  a  cold  when  he  goes 
out,  and  the  foreigner  is  puzzled  to  find  the  people  as 
a  rule  wearing  their  overcoats  and  often  their  hats  in- 
doors during  the  Chilean  winter,  even  when  they  are 

164 


CHILEAN  MEN  165 

abundantly  able  to  have  suitable  arrangements  to  make 
their  great  houses  livable  according  to  American 
standards  of  comfort. 

It  is  possible,  moreover,  for  the  Chilean  to  satisfy 
his  tastes  in  the  matter  of  weather  without  leaving 
his  own  country,  for  he  lives  in  a  land  that  stretches 
along  the  Pacific  Ocean  for  2,900  miles  from  about 
17  degrees  south  latitude  where  Chile  joins  Peru,  to 
Cape  Horn,  56  degrees,  south  latitude,  where  the  wind, 
it  is  said,  always  blows  a  gale  and  the  winter  lasts  nine 
months  of  the  year.  If  the  Chilean  craves  further 
variety,  he  can  have  it  among  the  lofty  snow-capped 
Andes  on  the  east,  which  in  the  southern  portion  of 
this  "Tapeline  Republic"  throw  their  glaciers  down 
to  the  very  water's  edge,  and  never  allow  the  coun- 
try to  become  more  than  about  a  hundred  miles  in 
width ;  he  may  also  live  in  the  deserts  of  the  north,  or 
among  the  smiling  California-like  valleys  full  of  flow- 
ers and  vineyards,  around  Valdivia. 

The  man  of  Chile  has  thus  been  shut  away  from 
the  rest  of  the  world  by  great  natural  barriers,  and 
this  partially,  explains  the  economic  situation  in  which 
we  find  him  at  present,  engaging  in  the  production  of 
material,  like  copper,  nitrates,  borax  and  iodine  whose 
great  values  can  stand  heavy  transportation  charges, 
and  producing  for  his  own  needs  such  articles  as  would 
command  huge  prices  if  imported  from  other  lands. 
The  Chilean  is  fortunate  in  inhabiting  a  country  that 
in  its  elongated  extent  at  one  place  or  another  is 
capable  of  producing  under  proper  treatment  well  nigh 
every  product  known  to  exist  in  any  part  of  the  world. 

In  the  north  she  has  tropical  lands  which  only  need 


166      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

irrigation  to  produce  all  that  is  seen  beneath  the  warm- 
est southern  skies.  The  main  reason  that  this  section 
has  not  been  irrigated  is  not  merely  the  difficulty  in 
securing  water  supply,  but  rather  because  this  des- 
ert region  contains  over  five  hundred  million  tons  of 
nitrate  close  to  the  surface,  which  is  said  to  be  suffi- 
cient to  last  the  world,  in  accordance  with  the  pres- 
ent rate  of  consumption,  more  than  two  hundred  years. 
These  nitrate  fields,  with  their  vast  sources  of  wealth, 
bring  into  the  country  by  export  tax  alone,  between 
fifty  and  sixty  per  cent  of  the  entire  revenues  of  the 
i  ational  government,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they 
are  said  to  be  the  chief  handicap  to  the  Chilean  man's 
advance  at  present,  there  is  probably  no  country  which 
would  lightly  despise  these  great  natural  resources. 

The  old  residents  will  speak  with  longing  of  those 
golden  days  of  long  ago  when  the  Chilean  really 
worked,  before  he  learned  to  depend  upon  politics  and 
official  positions  in  connection  with  the  government  in 
order  to  make  a  "soft"  living.  They  will  tell  you  of 
the  times  when  before  the  Civil  War,  the  United  States 
with  its  industry  and  Anglo-Saxon  vigour  carried  on 
the  chief  trade  with  Chile,  and  the  Chilean  was  found 
in  various  parts  of  the  world  pioneering  trade  and 
helping  to  develop  his  country. 

At  present  quite  a  different  condition  exists.  The 
German  has  come  to  Chile  with  his  scientific  and  effi- 
cient methods,  settled  in  her  southern  provinces,  de- 
veloping there  great  stretches  of  agricultural  terri- 
tory, keeping  her  shops  in  the  small  towns,  and  be- 
coming the  heads  of  large  business  firms,  trading  in 
things  "made  in  Germany."     Likewise  the  English,  the 


CHILEAN  MEN  167 

Scotchman,  the  Frenchman  and  the  Italian  have  seen 
the  opportunity  and  have  also  taken  control  of  some 
of  the  most  important  enterprises  of  the  country. 

Meanwhile  the  man  of  Chile  has  dropped  back  to 
the  old  Spanish  standard  of  being  a  gentleman  with 
unsoiled  hands.  The  one  hundred  old  Spanish- 
Chilean  families  who  are  said  to  rule  the  country,  have 
established  themselves  in  the  Capitol  at  Santiago,  and 
joining  with  the  Catholic  Church,  have  become  the 
leaders  of  the  Conservative  party  of  the  country,  not 
eager  for  progress,  but  desiring  far  more  the  leisured 
life  of  land  holders  or  honoured  politicians*  spend- 
ing long  vacations  in  Europe,  and  preferring  evidently 
at  times  the  atmosphere  of  a  monarchy  to  that  of  a 
republic. 

Against  this  strong  tide  of  feudal,  aristocratic,  and 
church  influence,  the  modern  liberals  are  trying  at 
present  to  oppose  progressive  measures,  and  the  es- 
timate that  one  hears  everywhere  to  the  effect  that 
the  Chilean  business  man  has  little  or  no  regard  for 
the  Church  personally,  and  is  beginning  to  realise  that 
his  modern  methods  of  doing  business  are  not  con- 
sistent with  the  old  time  customs  of  the  social  order, 
throws  hopeful  light  upon  the  situation.  The  hand 
of  officialdom  and  ecclesiastical  prestige  is  still  heavy 
upon  Chile,  and  the  youth  who  are  educated  in  the 
church  schools  and  are  brought  up  to  feel  that  men 
who  engage  in  commerce  and  really  make  a  business 
of  working  eight  hours  a  day,  are  a  bit  "common," 
are  not  being  trained  properly  to  take  the  leadership  in 
the  great  possible  industrial  enterprises  of  the  country. 
As  their  ideals  have  been  wrong  in  inheritance,   so 


168      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

their  education  has  been  one  sided,  the  literary  and 
legal  side  of  the  curriculum  being  chiefly  emphasised 
while  practical  education  which  a  great  agricultural 
and  mining  country  requires,  has  been  far  too  fre- 
quently conspicuous  by  its  absence. 

"What  is  to  be  the  result  ?"  I  asked  of  an  old 
Chilean.  He  answered,  "The  man  of  Chile  must  go 
hungry  before  he  will  really  apply  himself  to  that 
which  he  has  looked  upon  as  being  beneath  his  dig- 
nity— commerce." 

The  man  of  Chile  has  been  given  a  rich  heritage. 
His  Spanish  ancestors  mingled  and  married  with  the 
most  virile  and  sturdy  Indian  stock  of  South  America, 
and  the  Auracanian  Indian  is  still  forceful  in  Chile. 
The  better  class  inhabitant  of  this  land  is  unsur- 
passed in  intelligence  and  in  ability.  The  artistic 
and  cultured  side  has  been  developed  to  a  degree  sur- 
passing, in  many  cases,  that  found  in  the  United  States. 
But  politics  and  living  on  credit  have  sapped  his  active 
energy.  He  needs  a  new  impetus  along  the  line  of 
hard,  faithful  and  honest  endeavour.  He  is  like  a 
watch  whose  spring  has  run  down.  He  needs  rewind- 
ing. The  man  of  Chile  who  is  at  the  top  of  society 
needs  to  learn  that  honest  labour  is  a  dignified  calling. 

Senor  Juan  Luis  Sanfuentes,  the  present  man  of  the 
Chilean  "White  House,"  has  been  a  force  in  the  politi- 
cal life  of  his  country  for  many  years;  in  fact  one  hears 
him  spoken  of  at  times  in  terms  resembling  those 
which  we  in  the  United  States  are  accustomed  to  attach 
to  our  political  bosses.  In  other  words  he  is  not  un- 
familiar with  the  ways  and  means  of  carrying  on  the 
government  in  Chile,  and  the  strength  of  the  Sanfuentes 


CHILEAN  MEN  169 

personality  has  been  felt  in  more  than  one  stirring  con- 
test in  a  republic  where  politics  form  the  most  popular 
profession. 

The  Chilean  President  is  a  Liberal  in  politics,  but 
he  was  elected  by  the  Conservatives  with  the  help  of 
some  of  the  minor  factions,  and  as  a  result  he  is  finding 
some  difficulty  in  pleasing  his  diverse  constituents. 
When  I  was  in  Chile  the  radicals  and  democrats  were 
quite  to  the  front  with  all  kinds  of  censure  of  officers 
and  government  practices,  while  the  House  of  Deputies 
was  wrangling  over  the  measure  recently  proposed  to 
make  it  impossible  for  officers  in  the  army  and  navy  to 
be  members  of  secret  societies,  especially  of  the 
masonic  order.  Page  after  page  in  the  daily  papers 
contain  accounts  in  full  of  the  entire  proceedings  of 
Congress,  and  in  general  it  is  the  Conservative  party 
[which  is  also  the  Church  party]  vs.  the  Liberals  and 
several  minor  political  cliques. 

I  attended  a  meeting  of  students  and  labouring  men 
held  on  the  main  Plaza  of  Santiago,  which  might  have 
been  a  sign  of  encouraging  progress  in  democracy  and 
free  thinking  to  those  who  will  tell  you  here  that  Chile 
is  a  Republic  only  in  name,  and  that  the  Church  and 
the  old  conservative  families  really  rule  the  country. 

A  big  brass  band  led  the  torch-light  procession 
wherein  was  displayed  various  transparencies  and  ban- 
ners promising  death  and  destruction  to  the  corrupt 
rulers,  and  especially  to  the  head  of  the  police  who  was 
the  particular  object  of  this  meeting's  derision.  Fiery 
and  eloquent  speeches  were  in  order,  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  political  speech  is  a  tame  affair  in  contrast  to 
the  easily  flowing  periods  of  even  the  slightly  educated 


170     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

politician  of  the  Latin  temperament.  At  the  end  of 
each  scathing  rebuke  the  crowd  went  wild,  with  the 
aid  of  all  kinds  of  bells  and  tin  instruments  which  made 
one  think  of  a  New  Year's  celebration  in  Manhattan. 
After  an  hour  or  more  of  oratory,  noise  and  band- 
music  the  agitators  formed  in  procession  and  marched 
to  another  part  of  the  Capital  city  where  the  perform- 
ance was  repeated.  That  this  gathering  was  not 
merely  a  "cart  tail"  oratorical  display,  was  revealed  by 
the  fact  that  the  editor  of  one  of  the  prominent  daily 
newspapers  was  one  of  the  speakers,  the  university  stu- 
dents also  taking  a  prominent  part.  In  fact,  I  was 
attended  at  the  meeting  by  two  of  the  prominent  edu- 
cators of  the  city,  whose  interest  and  sympathy  with 
the  remarks  of  the  speakers  were  shown  unmistakably. 

The  visitor  in  Chile  will  be  told  by  the  patriotic 
Chilean  that  there  are  no  socialists  in  the  country,  that 
"we  would  kick  them  out  very  quickly,"  as  one  man 
expressed  himself  in  my  hearing;  yet  the  student  of 
this  vigorous  country  would  be  inclined  to  predict  that 
if  socialism  and  labour  troubles  are  not  already  here 
in  embryo,  they  are  on  their  way.  The  next  quarter 
of  a  century  will  find  the  country  necessarily  grappling 
with  many  of  the  problems  of  society  and  the  labour 
question  with  which  the  United  States  and  all  growing 
republican  nations  have  had  to  deal  at  some  time  or 
other. 

One  advanced  and  very  intelligent  member  of  this 
group  of  reformers  made  a  visit  recently  to  the 
"hacienda,"  or  farm  of  the  President  and  dressed  as  an 
"inquilino,"  or  labourer,  made  notes  of  the  alleged 
abuses  practiced  on  the  farm  workers  of  Chile,  writing 


TYPES  OF  A  PATAGONIAN  INDIAN  TRIBE  OF  SOUTHERN  CHILE 


CHILEAN  MEN  171 

it  out  in  full  and  publishing  it  in  a  paper  of  Santiago, 
and  also  in  a  book  later.  During  my  interview  with 
President  Sanfuentes,  I  remarked  that  I  had  already 
seen  the  account  of  his  farming  methods,  at  which  he 
laughed  heartily,  saying: 

"Yes,  it  looks  rather  bad  for  me,  but,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  I  have  only  just  purchased  that  farm  and  the 
abuses  can  scarcely  be  laid  at  my  door." 

According  to  the  statement  of  another  man  who 
was  present  at  this  interview,  the  social  investigator 
was  at  the  farm  only  two  hours,  and  the  account  was 
coloured  considerably  by  the  imagination  of  the  writer. 
There  was  ground,  however,  for  the  complaints,  espe- 
cially regarding  the  unsanitary  and  ill  conditions  of 
living  among  the  "inquilinos"  on  the  vast  farms  which 
number  hundreds,  and  frequently  thousands  of  acres, 
and  where  the  peons  are  found  utterly  ignorant  and 
with  hardly  any  conception  of  the  outer  world. 

Certain  it  is  that  no  one  visiting  the  Chilean  Presi- 
dent and  his  charming  wife  would  get  any  impression 
other  than  that  the  destinies  of  this  republic  were  now 
in  the  hands  of  very  real  and  genuine  people. 

Their  home  is  a  typical  Spanish  one  built  on  a  grand 
scale,  with  huge  rooms,  high  ceilings  and  filled  with 
paintings  and  statuary  that  might  add  to  any  European 
art  gallery.  We  were  received  on  a  Sunday  afternoon, 
not  only  by  the  President  but  also  by  Mrs.  Sanfuentes 
and  several  members  of  the  family.  The  home  was 
filled  with  that  delightful  air  of  hospitality  and  thought- 
ful courtesy  which  marks  the  life  of  these  well-bred 
cultured  people  of  the  best  class  in  Chile.  The  Presi- 
dent, a  big  genial  man  about  sixty  years  old,  makes 


172     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

one  at  home  immediately  by  his  remarks  as  to  one's 
trip,  and  inquiries  concerning  your  health,  family,  and 
happiness  generally,  which  always  forms  the  customary 
prelude  when  Chilean  meets  Chilean,  no  matter  how 
important  or  immediate  may  be  the  business  in  hand. 
Our  conversation  was  interrupted  at  times  by  Madame 
President,  true  to  her  Chilean  home  devotion,  excusing 
herself  to  go  out  of  the  room  to  attend  to  some  domes- 
tic's inquiries,  or  bringing  in  to  meet  us  her  beautiful 
grandchild,  or  going  to  find  a  picture  of  her  son  to 
show  us. 

Like  all  Chilean  homes,  also,  the  house  was  without 
heat,  even  in  the  winter,  the  wife  of  the  President 
wearing  a  seal-skin  coat  and  a  la  Chinese  holding  her 
hands  up  her  sleeves  to  keep  them  warm.  It  is  cus- 
tomary here  in  the  winter  months  for  your  host  to  in- 
sist that  you  keep  on  your  overcoat  in  the  house,  and 
he  sometimes  suggests  that  you  keep  your  hat  at  hand 
to  wear  if  you  need  it  in  passing  through  the  open  air 
patios  with  which  all  the  old  Spanish  houses  are  fur- 
nished. 

"What  is  the  outstanding  need  of  Chile  at  present?" 
I  asked.  "Capital!"  was  the  President's  reply.  "We 
have  great  natural  resources.  Almost  everything 
found  in  any  country  can  be  raised  on  our  land,  or  dug 
out  of  our  mines;  but  we  must  have  money  for  irriga- 
tion, for  the  needs  of  transportation  and  for  the  start- 
ing and  maintenance  of  industries.  Note  what  some 
of  your  own  countrymen  are  doing  at  present  here  in 
mining,"  he  continued.  "See  the  huge  trade  that  the 
English  and  Germans  have  built  upon  Chilean  re- 
sources.    These  things  have  been  wrought  largely  by 


CHILEAN  MEN  173 

foreign  capital.  Give  us  money  for  promotion  pur- 
poses, and  our  advance  is  almost  certain  and  at  once." 

The  subject  of  immigration  was  discussed,  and  H.  E. 
emphasised  the  fact  that  Chile,  contrary  to  the  opinion 
held  in  some  quarters,  desired  immigration  not  from 
Europe  only,  but  also  from  the  United  States. 

"The  Germans,  for  example,"  said  the  President, 
"have  developed  for  themselves  some  wonderful  col- 
onies in  the  south  of  Chile.  They  have  revealed  what 
can  be  done  along  the  line  of  colonisation  in  this  pro- 
ductive land  where  the  mountains  have  ample  water 
power  for  all  kinds  of  purposes,  and  where  there  is 
only  required  proper  industry  to  raise  fruits  and  grains 
equal  to  any  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  world." 

"Yet,"  it  was  added,  "we  are  a  bit  particular  to  make 
sure  that  we  get  the  right  kind  of  immigration,  and 
such  as  we  can  assimilate  and  is  adapted  to  the  country's 
need  at  the  time.  We  expect  that  the  opening  of  the 
Panama  Canal,  which  will  break  the  isolation  our  land 
has  heretofore  experienced,  will  aid  us  in  this,  as  in 
many  other  ways." 

One  could  hardly  expect  that  any  government  official 
would  speak  ill  of  the  nitrate  industry,  which  is  bringing 
to  Chile  at  present  considerably  more  than  one  half 
her  entire  revenue.  I  ventured  to  say  that  many  peo- 
ple had  told  me  that  nitrate  was  not  an  unmixed  bless- 
ing to  this  country,  since  it  brought  in  so  much  "easy 
money"  in  revenue,  that  it  tended  to  cut  the  nerve  of 
the  old-time  Chilean  endeavour,  and  caused  really  every 
one  to  seek  connection  with  the  Government,  and  share 
in  the  stream  of  wealth  flowing  into  the  nation's  treas- 


174      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ury  from  saltpetre,  iodine  and  the  rich  nitrate  fer- 
tilisers. 

"Only  a  comparatively  small  percentage  of  our  pop- 
ulation is  engaged  in  the  nitrate  fields,"  answered  the 
President,  "while  the  revenues  have  helped  to  make 
possible  schools,  railroads  and  many  other  improve- 
ments which  would  not  have  been  possible  otherwise." 

Reference  was  made  to  the  new  bill  of  two  million 
pesos  for  primary  education,  which  branch  of  learning 
is  weak  in  Chile. 

"To  be  sure,"  Said  Dr.  Sanfuentes,  "every  nation 
first  cultivates  her  natural  resources.  The  United 
States  followed  that  policy.  According  to  the  view  of 
the  Chilean  the  fears  of  certain  persons  that  Chile  will 
be  ruined  by  nitrate  are  groundless,  since  the  people 
are  active  and  intelligent;  the  majority  of  the  youth  of 
the  land  work,  and  the  sons  of  the  large  farmers  are 
interesting  themselves  now  in  the  improvement  of  their 
lands  through  modern  appliances,  and  trying  to  better 
the  condition  of  their  employees,  by  sending  them  to 
night  schools  and  building  for  them  better  dwellings. 
This  work  may  seem  slow  since  the  peons  are  averse 
to  change;  they  do  not,  as  a  rule,  wish  to  spare  their 
boys  from  manual  work  in  order  to  send  them  to 
school ;  they  are  too  often  satisfied  with  things  as  they 
are." 

"What  about  trade  with  the  United  States  after  the 
war  is  over?"  was  asked. 

"That  depends  almost  entirely  upon  you,"  was  the 
decided  answer.  "Chile  is  not  averse  to  doing  business 
with  your  country,"  said  the  head  of  the  Government, 
"and  now  that  we  are  by  necessity  getting  a  closer  ac- 


CHILEAN  MEN  175 

quaintance  with  the  people  in  the  'States'  than  we  have 
had  previously,  there  is  every  opportunity  for  your 
manufacturers  to  establish  a  large  and  permanent  trade 
in  Chile.  The  great  difficulty  at  present  resides  in  the 
fact  that  our  people  are  having  so  much  trouble  to  get 
considerate  treatment  as  regards  filling  of  orders  as 
they  are  sent,  also  with  payments,  which  are  demanded 
often  in  cash  before  the  goods  are  even  shipped,  when 
the  Chileans  have  been  accustomed  to  credits  of  sixty 
or  ninety  days.  Our  people  are  saying,  'It  seems  that 
the  United  States  does  not  care  for  our  trade.' 

"Unless  your  manufacturers  awake  to  the  situation 
in  time,"  said  he,  "I  feel  almost  certain  that  the 
Chileans  will  go  back  to  their  European  markets  as 
soon  as  the  war  opens  those  markets  again.  It  will  be 
a  matter  not  only  of  economic  gain  for  us,  but  also  an 
added  convenience  in  being  able  to  do  business  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  traditional  taste  and  custom  of  the 
country." 

This  sentiment  is  found  not  only  in  Chile  but  also  in 
virtually  every  Latin-American  country  I  visited. 
Buenos  Aires  was  much  disturbed  when  I  was  there  by 
reason  of  several  cases  of  shipments  of  goods  not  in 
accordance  with  orders  or  agreement,  and  the  press 
was  scathing  in  protest  of  what  was  considered  grave 
breaches  of  business  integrity  on  the  part  of  American 
shippers. 

Almost  every  American  business  man  one  meets 
down  here,  as  well  as  many  of  the  consular  officers  of 
the  United  States  Government  seem  pessimistic  about 
our  getting  the  great  and  important  business  in  these 
republics   because   our   manufacturers    are    either   so 


176     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

much  absorbed  in  the  temporary  business  in  connection 
with  the  European  war,  or  are  plainly  indifferent  to 
their  future  interests,  that  they  overlook  one  of  the 
most  far-reaching  opportunities  for  foreign  trade  ever 
opened  to  America.  To  be  sure,  many  are  awake  to 
the  unprecedented  "abnormality"  of  opportunity,  as 
one  official  expressed  it,  but  we  need  banks  down  here 
in  every  important  city;  we  need  special  visits  by  manu- 
facturers themselves  who  will  get  into  touch  personally 
with  the  people  and  gain  their  point  of  view  as  they 
never  can  get  it  at  long  range;  and  more  than  all  the 
American  firms  need  to  appreciate  that  what  is  done 
must  be  done  quickly. 

"A  month  of  activity  now  in  getting  into  touch  in  the 
right  way  with  these  markets  will  be  worth  years  of 
slow  plodding  for  any  manufacturer  in  the  United 
States  after  European  competition  sets  in  again  at  the 
end  of  the  war,"  was  the  significant  remark  of  one  of 
the  astute  heads  of  a  strong  American  firm  doing  busi- 
ness in  South  America. 

That  the  people  in  these  states  south  of  us  are  eager 
and  ready  to  do  their  part,  the  Chilean  President 
averred: 

"We  are  sending  our  students  to  study  in  the  United 
States,"  said  he,  "since  we  know  that  our  people  who 
have  visited  you  have  returned  enthusiastic  over  the 
things  they  have  seen  and  learned.  We  believe  that 
there  is  a  natural  bond  of  comity  between  the  republics 
on  this  continent.  Our  people  have  usually  gone  to 
Europe  in  late  years  for  their  pleasure  and  travel,  as 
well  as  for  their  business  ideals.  Many  of  us  have 
hoped  that  it  would  be  possible  to  join  our  American 


CHILEAN  MEN  177 

nations  more  closely  than  ever  before  through  the  ex- 
igencies of  these  unusual  times — but  I  repeat,"  said 
he,  "this  depends  largely  upon  the  men  of  the  United 
States."  ' 

What  will  be  the  answer  of  our  people  to  this  con- 
fessedly frank  and  true  statement  of  the  President  of 
Chile? 


CHAPTER  XII 

SANTIAGO THE  CITY  OF  ARISTOCRACY 

Aloof  from  our  mutation  and  unrest. — William  Watson. 

SOUTH  AMERICAN  cities  possess  many  traits  in 
common.  The  same  language  is  spoken,  Spanish, 
save  in  Brazil  with  its  Portuguese  traditions.  The 
architecture  varies  somewhat,  but  in  all  the  larger  cities 
and  towns  the  churches  and  the  public  buildings  remind 
one  of  Europe,  often  of  mediaeval  Europe,  and  the 
open  patios,  the  flower  gardens  and  the  ever  present 
Spanish  balcony,  confront  one  everywhere. 

There  are  also  similarities  in  the  characteristics  of 
the  population.  A  foreign  gentleman  once  said  to  me 
on  the  West  Coast,  "See  one  Latin-American  city  and 
you  have  seen  them  all."  To  a  hurried  traveller  this 
may  seem  true,  but  as  soon  as  one  begins  to  get  below 
the  surface,  meeting  the  people  of  various  classes  and 
studying  habits  in  the  light  of  history,  he  finds  a  world 
of  difference  in  these  cities.  Lima  is  as  different  from 
Buenos  Aires  as  Quebec  is  from  Toronto,  while  Quito 
is  as  unlike  Rio  de  Janeiro  as  Delhi  is  unlike  Naples. 
In  each  of  the  large  cities  of  the  Southern  Hemisphere 
of  America  certain  geographical,  racial  and  physio- 
logical conditions  have  combined  to  stamp  the  inhabi- 
tants with  more  or  less  distinctive  traits. 

178 


SANTIAGO— THE  CITY  OF  ARISTOCRACY     179 

This  fact  is  abundantly  evident  in  the  Chilean  city 
of  Santiago,  the  fourth  city  in  number  of  inhabitants 
in  South  America.  It  is  a  city  of  isolated  aristocracy, 
situated  in  the  heart  of  the  real  Chile  on  the  tableland 
from  which  the  inhabitants  look  up  to  the  glistening 
perennial  snows  of  the  Cordilleras,  which  shut  it  in  on 
the  east,  and  see  toward  the  west  the  verdant  slopes 
of  the  coast  range  mountains.  It  seems  an  ideal  spot 
for  a  great  city,  here  in  this  amphitheatre  of  hills  and 
mountain  summits,  some  of  which  pierce  the  heavens 
19,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  Chilean  Capital. 
It  is  a  standing  compliment  to  the  judgment  of  the 
eminent  conquistadore,  Valdivia,  who,  in  the  year 
1 541,  placed  on  Santa  Lucia  Hill,  which  overlooks  this 
fair  city,  his  fortress  built  against  the  Auracanian  In- 
dians. 

There  is  only  one  other  South  American  city,  the 
enchanting  Rio,  that  approaches  the  natural  beauty  of 
Santiago  among  the  Andes.  As  one  stands  at  sunset 
on  the  hill  of  Santa  Lucia,  which  is  not  unlike  a  rich 
flower  garden  bending  over  the  city  and  two  hundred 
feet  above,  his  eye  is  greeted  by  a  wonderful  panorama 
of  enclosed  country  forty  miles  long  and  eighteen  miles 
in  width,  in  the  midst  of  which  lies  Santiago,  whose 
parks  and  broad  statue-adorned  Alameda,  with  its 
churches  and  handsome  buildings,  form  a  rich  colour 
contrast  with  the  snowy  peaks  of  the  Andes  to  the 
east. 

Here  is  focussed  the  political  energy  of  Chile,  which 
is  the  most  ardently  patriotic  of  all  the  South  Ameri- 
can republics.  Here  dwell  the  hundred  or  more  old 
aristocratic  families  which  are  said  to  rule  the  country. 


180      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Here  is  the  great  cathedral  occupying  an  entire  block 
and  the  Bishop's  palace,  from  which  there  issues  an  in- 
fluence, political  as  well  as  ecclesiastical,  almost  as 
powerful  as  in  those  distant  mediaeval  days,  when  the 
Church  was  the  State  and  the  State  was  the  Church. 
Here  are  the  wealthy  land-owners  whose  fine  homes 
signify  the  vast  productiveness  of  Chilean  soil,  and  also 
the  favoured  sons  of  a  government  grown  rich  by 
nitrates,  and  revenues  upon  mining  products  made  pos- 
sible by  foreign  labour. 

As  one  meets  everywhere  in  the  streets  of  this  active 
and  alert  Capital  the  silk-hatted  Deputies  and  the  ever 
present  would-be  young  politician,  one  gains  the  im- 
pression that  for  the  Chilean,  politics  is  all.  In  the 
schools  if  one  asks  the  controlling  ideals  for  life  work, 
the  answer  is  constantly,  "Our  young  men  want  to  be 
lawyers  and  have  a  place  in  the  government."  The 
older  inhabitants  shake  their  heads  at  times  and  seem 
to  wonder  what  is  going  to  be  the  result  of  all  this 
modern  race  of  politics-loving  youth,  these  young  men 
who  consider  business  and  commerce  a  bit  lowering  to 
their  aristocratic  standards  of  gentlemanhood.  As  an 
old  resident  said  to  me,  "Our  young  and  active  and 
intelligent  sons,  alas,  do  not  like  to  work.  The  gov- 
ernment with  its  short  hours  and  good  pay  is  more 
attractive.  These  are  not  such  days  as  we  knew  be- 
fore we  took  from  Peru  her  nitrate  provinces.  Then, 
work  was  more  honourable,  and  our  commercial  agents 
were  found  throughout  the  world." 

•  In  a  city  like  Santiago,  where  politics  is  a  business, 
one  is  not  surprised  to  find  a  system  of  favouritism,  and 
political  manoeuvring  for  the  securing  of  well  paid  posi- 


SANTIAGO— THE  CITY  OF  ARISTOCRACY    181 

tions  in  all  lines  of  business  owned  and  controlled  by 
the  government.  The  same  kind  of  story  heard  in  other 
republics  about  the  overcrowding  of  employes  upon 
railroads  and  the  almost  unbelievable  corruption  in 
connection  with  the  contracts  for  government  construc- 
tion and  municipal  affairs,  is  heard  here  in  this  beau- 
tiful town,  which  has  been  almost  hermetically  sealed 
against  the  outside  world  by  her  unique  geographical 
boundaries. 

Yet  the  spirit  of  the  inhabitants  of  Santiago  is  dis- 
tinctly strong,  virile  and  attractive,  as  different  from 
the  Peruvian  laissez-faire  and  that  of  the  tropically 
influenced  inhabitant  of  the  republics  northeast  of 
Chile,  as  one  can  possibly  imagine.  The  city  is  full  of 
the  air  of  modernity;  there  is  to  be  found  here  pride 
of  accomplishment,  pride  of  family,  pride  of  race,  and 
particularly  a  pride  in  fighting  abilities.  In  fact,  one 
may  say  that  politics  and  war  are  the  two  topics  which 
are  of  perennial  interest  to  the  people  of  this  city. 
More  than  any  other  South  American  republic,  Chile 
is  militarily  inclined. 

I  found  no  peace  propaganda  in  Santiago,  but  we 
found  here,  as  throughout  the  country,  Chilean  soldiers 
and  officers  who  remind  one  more  of  Prussia  in  both 
their  dress  and  ideals  than  they  resemble  the  usual 
South  American  republicans.  This  may  not  seem 
strange  when  we  realise  that  the  Chilean  army  has  been 
trained  by  the  Germans  and  that  Germany,  through 
her  colonists  and  influence  exerted  in  many  ways  upon 
this  state,  has  left  her  deep  impress  here.  In  fact,  as 
one  walks  through  the  streets  of  Santiago  one  finds  it 
hard  to  discover  what  might  be  called  a  Chilean  type 


182     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  face.  The  negro  or  Indian  types  are  absent. 
There  are  many  blondes,  and  the  upward  curl  of  the 
moustaches  could  almost  deceive  one  into  believing 
that  he  was  in  one  of  the  smaller  cities  of  North  Ger- 
many. 

Among  the  attractions  of  this  Chilean  city  are  its 
beautiful  women.  They  are  beautiful  with  a  type  all 
their  own;  lighter  in  complexion  than  their  Peruvian 
cousins,  with  more  vigorous  bodies  but  with  delicate, 
oval  faces,  often  pale  through  artificial  causes.  Their 
eyes  are  their  chief  charm,  being  large  and  dark,  and 
often  reminding  one  of  some  sad  old  melancholy 
romance  one  has  read  concerning  those  pristine  Spanish 
days  "When  knights  were  bold,  and  barons  held  their 
sway." 

Many  of  these  women  are  tall  and  stately,  and  their 
clothes  are  bought  in  Paris.  They  are  the  epitome, 
especially  the  members  of  the  higher  classes,  of  well- 
bred  and  graceful  ladyhood.  One  can  hardly  blame  the 
young  Chileans  for  standing  on  the  street  corners  at 
the  tea  hour,  or  sitting  in  the  tea  cafes  in  order  to  watch 
these  fair  creatures  "born  in  Chile.'" 

The  manta,  "that  graceful  euphemism  which  shields 
the  poor  and  disarms  the  vain,"  in  a  kind  of  soft  black 
enveloping  shroud,  making  the  women  look  very  much 
like  nuns,  but  their  closely  framed  faces  are  too  happy 
and  lightsome  to  fully  complete  this  illusion.  When 
you  see  their  slender,  graceful  figures,  silhouetted 
against  some  light  background,  or  behold  them  kneel- 
ing in  their  dimly  lighted  churches,  you  are  quite  in- 
clined to  think  that  not  the  least  charm  of  this  fascinat- 
ing  city  consists   in   its  beautiful   women.      Perhaps, 


SANTIAGO—THE  CITY  OF  ARISTOCRACY     183 

however,  one's  admiration  for  these  Santiago  beauties 
is  somewhat  diminished  upon  closer  acquaintanceship. 
In  the  majority  of  cases  the  women,  while  beautifully 
ornamental,  rarely  leave  their  homes.  They  are  not 
as  secluded  as  are  the  Peruvian  women,  but  they  still 
believe  that  the  home  is  the  woman's  realm.  I  found 
only  one  woman's  club  in  Chile,  and  this  club  seemed  to 
be  having  a  struggle  for  existence.  As  one  of  the 
ladies  of  Santiago's  aristocracy  expressed  it,  with  a 
shrug  of  her  pretty  shoulders,  "Clubs  are  for  women 
who  have  no  homes,  but  the  ladies  of  Chile  will  never 
countenance  them." 

These  fair  inhabitants  excel  as  musicians  and 
linguists,  but  as  far  as  modern  education  is  concerned 
and  the  ability  to  carry  on  a  conversation  requiring  any 
general  knowledge  or  thought,  one  will  be  exceedingly 
disappointed  in  Chilean  feminine  society. 

The  home  in  Santiago  is  quite  hermetically  sealed  to 
foreigners.  One  often  meets  American  or  English 
business  men  here  who  will  tell  you  that  they  have 
hardly  been  within  the  home  of  a  Chilean  during  their 
entire  residence  in  the  country.  Once  in  a  while  a 
foreigner  who  is  particularly  "simpatico,"  or  an  alien 
youth  who  has  married  into  a  Chilean  family,  gets  into 
Santiago  "society."  The  Chilean  will  entertain  his 
guests  at  his  club,  but  he  follows  the  South  American 
habit  of  keeping  his  home  to  himself. 

In  fact,  the  home  life  of  Santiago  is  patriarchal. 
The  families  are  enormous,  and  the  sons  and  daughters 
and  aunts  and  cousins  and  far  cousins  make  such  a 
wide  circle  of  social  life  that  the  Santiagoan  does  not 
need  the  cultivation  of  outside  acquaintances. 


184      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Santiago,  moreover,  is  a  home  for  the  rich  and  a 
home  for  the  poor.  There  is  no  great  middle  class. 
As  soon  as  you  go  a  block  or  two  from  the  beautiful 
Alameda,  lined  with  the  homes  of  the  rich,  you  will 
come  upon  the  very  slums  where  the  poor  are  huddled 
together  in  one-room  tenements,  and  often  under  most 
unsanitary  conditions.  These  tenements  are  usually 
located  in  alleys  off  from  the  main  streets.  These 
alleys  are  paved  with  cobble  stones,  with  a  large  drain 
running  through  the  centre,  and  the  whole  life  of  the 
inmates  of  the  one-story  houses  is  passed  in  these  open, 
narrow  defiles,  where  they  cook  and  wash  their  linen, 
and  perform  many  of  their  household  duties.  These 
tenements,  horribly  overcrowded,  are  used  only  for 
sleeping  and  eating  purposes,  as  the  remainder  of  the 
life  is  largely  out  of  doors.  The  Santiagoans  are  be- 
ginning to  realise  that  these  tenements  and  the  adobe 
huts  are  a  disgrace  to  their  beautiful  city,  and  one  man 
not  long  ago  built  a  line  of  model  tenements.  Unfor- 
tunately the  prices  were  so  high  that  the  poor  could 
not  afford  to  live  in  them,  and  they  are  now  occupied 
by  clerks,  school  teachers,  and  others  whose  purse 
makes  it  possible  for  them  to  reside  under  healthful 
modern  conditions. 

As  one  wanders  about  through  this  striking  city,  be- 
holding the  glaring  contrasts  between  its  wealth  and 
its  poverty,  it  is  usually  with  the  wonder  that  these 
highly  patriotic  citizens  have  not  yet  turned  their  sen- 
timents of  patriotism  more  systematically  towards  the 
great  social  and  humanitarian  enterprises  which  engage 
to-day  so  many  people  in  the  cities  of  America  and 
Europe. 


SANTIAGO— THE  CITY  OF  ARISTOCRACY    185 

Despite  many  things  which  the  investigator  finds  in 
Santiago  not  exactly  to  his  liking,  there  is  still  for  him 
an  abiding  charm,  not  unlike  that  which  holds  him  in 
many  an  Oriental  city.  This  is  especially  recognised 
at  "vermouth  time,"  which  is  the  period  just  before 
nightfall  in  Santiago,  when  the  whole  city  seems  to 
leave  its  homes  and  its  offices  to  take  a  little  promenade 
before  dinner.  The  merchant  pulls  down  his  heavy 
iron  shutters ;  the  newsboys  cry  out  the  evening  editions 
of  the  newspapers,  with  shrill  voices,  on  the  corners  of 
the  thickly  congested  thoroughfare  of  Huerfanos,  and 
the  Union  club,  where  the  gentry  and  politicians  gather, 
is  filling  up  with  a  goodly  quota  of  its  twenty-one  hun- 
dred members.  At  this  hour,  when  the  dull  red  after- 
glow of  the  sunset  is  reflected  upon  the  snowy  tops  of 
the  Andes,  which  are  always  present  to  view  from 
nearly  every  part  of  the  city,  the  bells  ring  in  the 
theatres  calling  the  people  to  the  latest  Spanish  playlet, 
or  cinema,  which  has  just  received  a  film  from  New 
York,  shown  six  months  ago  upon  the  "White  Way" 
of  the  northern  metropolis. 

On  the  Plaza,  where  Santiago  youth  walks  and  stares 
at  each  other,  the  band  is  tuning  up  its  instruments. 
This  circling  around  the  Plaza  at  twilight  seems  to  be 
a  tradition  of  the  blood  in  Spanish  American  countries. 
The  young  men  walk  about  in  one  direction  and  the 
young  women  in  the  opposite  direction.  This  gives  an 
opportunity  for  the  pretty  Santiago  maiden  to  show  her 
face  to  an  admirer  without  a  breach  of  propriety.  It 
is  a  motley  and  vari-coloured  crowd,  as  far  as  garments 
go.  The  young  Chilean  officer  is  there,  in  red  coat 
and  grey  mantle.     There  is  the  dapper  young  idler 


186     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

and  son  of  the  wealthy  hacienda  owner,  the  clerk  from 
the  great  foreign  commercial  house,  old  men  and  young 
men,  all  coming  to  admire  the  senoritas  as  they  pass 
slowly  by.  In  the  moving  panorama  of  Chilean  fem- 
ininity one  discovers  here  and  there  girls  of  good 
families  attended  by  a  watchful  duenna,  but  this  Plaza 
march  is  composed  largely  of  the  young  women  of  the 
classes  once  removed  from  "Society"  and  the  pretty 
shop  girls. 

This  Plaza  section  is  like  the  famous  Avenida  of 
Rio,  where  all  Rio  appears  at  nightfall.  The  air  is 
filled  with  the  scent  of  violets  which  the  flower  boys 
fairly  thrust  upon  one.  The  narrow  streets  are 
jammed  with  limousines  and  fine  victorias  carrying  the 
wealthy  and  the  socially  elect  to  the  tea  places  and 
clubs.  The  great  double-decked  cars  move  slowly 
down  the  crowded  streets,  packed  with  the  only  true 
democrats  of  the  country,  who  are  for  the  most  part 
jammed  together  like  sardines  on  the  roof  of  the 
tram  cars,  where  riding  at  night  is  colder,  but  less 
costly. 

The  chill  that  sweeps  down  from  the  heights  of  the 
Andes  makes  the  hurrying  Santiagoan  button  his  over- 
coat tighter  and  feel  for  his  gloves.  But  in  all  his 
rush  to  join  a  party  of  friends  at  the  club  he  never 
forgets  to  raise  his  hat  and  shake  hands  as  he  meets 
a  gentleman  on  the  way. 

If  you  wish  to  see  men  and  women  who  are  the  rul- 
ers and  pattern  makers  of  the  life  of  Chile,  it  is  all  here 
at  "vermouth  time,"  here  in  a  square  mile  in  Santiago. 
It  is  a  glittering  phantasmagoria  of  externalism,  pomp 
and  pleasure-loving — a  bit  of  the  mediaeval  day  that 


SANTIAGO— THE  CITY  OF  ARISTOCRACY    187 

died  before  it  was  born  in  America,  mixed  with  a  half- 
formed  desire  for  modernity. 

One  cannot  but  think  that  this  really  important  city, 
that  holds  the  sovereignty  of  government  and  fashion 
in  Chile,  will  in  the  next  generation  put  off  much  of 
this  specious  worship  of  family  and  caste  which,  to- 
gether with  an  oligarchical  type  of  clergy,  binds  the 
wheels  of  the  republic.  As  the  more  clogging  accom- 
paniments of  Spanish  tradition  and  an  authoritative 
Church  have  been  relegated  to  the  background  in 
Argentina,  making  way  for  the  new  order  of  social 
and  industrial  progress,  so  in  Chile  a  new  generation 
promises  to  sweep  away  much  of  this  patriarchal  aris- 
tocracy, ill  suited  to  the  air  of  republicanism. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

BUSINESS  OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST 

Load  the  donkey  according  to  the  wish  of  the  master. 

Old  Portuguese  Proverb. 

AMONG  the  far-reaching  possibilities  making  for 
better  business  relationships  between  the  United 
States  and  the  South  American  republics  are  those 
flowing  from  the  recent  policy  of  the  United  States 
Government  in  sending  a  few  trained  business  special- 
ists— Commercial  Attaches,  to  several  of  the  Latin 
American  States. 

Mr.  William  F.  Montavon,  who  is  the  commercial 
representative  for  Peru  and  Bolivia,  has  already 
travelled  over  large  portions  of  his  field,  visiting  some 
of  the  leading  industrial  enterprises  and  gaining  valu- 
able information  regarding  the  business  opportunities 
for  Americans  in  these  countries. 

I  asked  him  concerning  some  of  the  chief  difficulties 
he  encountered,  and  he  answered: 

"The  trouble  just  now  is  to  get  the  manufacturers  in 
the  United  States  to  discover  that  we  are  here  and 
desire  to  help  them  to  secure  business  in  South  America. 
Many  of  them  do  not  seem  to  know  that  we  exist,  and 
we  are  spending  considerable  time  at  present  simply  to 
inform  them  of  the  ways  in  which  they  can  secure  in- 


OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST     189 

formation  through  us  and  asking  them  to  let  us  be  of 


In  speaking  of  the  opening  doors  for  trade  with  Peru, 
especially,  Mr.  Montavon  expressed  his  conviction 
that  there  was  need  to  establish  some  kind  of  a  publicity 
campaign  through  South  American  papers  by  which  the 
Latin  American  may  be  able  to  learn  the  exact  truth 
regarding  American  business,  prices,  and  the  general 
point  of  view  of  people  in  the  United  States.  The 
Peruvian  needs  to  be  shown  thereby  that  these  present 
prices,  which  in  many  cases  are  double  the  usual  prices 
they  have  been  required  to  pay  for  goods,  are  war 
prices  and  not  normal  ones.  Everywhere  one  goes  in 
the  cities  and  towns  of  Peru  one  hears  complaints  about 
the  exorbitant  cost  of  American  manufactured  articles, 
and  European  competitors  of  the  United  States  for  the 
South  American  trade  are  quite  ready  to  join  the 
Peruvians  in  extending  the  impression  that  everything 
made  in  America  is  excessively  expensive. 

A  newspaper  campaign,  which  would  show  the  actual 
conditions  and  the  handicap  under  which  our  manufac- 
turers are  now  working  because  of  the  European  war, 
would  be  of  great  assistance  at  present.  Mr.  Mon- 
tavon believes  that  the  South  American  papers  would 
be  very  glad  to  print  such  articles.  In  fact,  these 
papers  are  eager  for  news  especially  relating  to  com- 
mercial and  social  conditions  in  the  United  States,  and 
at  present  the  information  printed  in  the  Peruvian 
newspaper  is  fragmentary  and  often  misleading. 

For  example,  the  answer  of  Germany  to  the  message 
of  the  United  States  regarding  submarines  was  printed 


190     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

in  full  by  one  of  the  leading  dailies,  while  our  message 
to  Germany  was  not  printed  either  in  this  edition  or 
in  any  former  one.  The  people  thus  get  one-sided 
accounts,  and  the  traveller  in  these  countries  often 
comes  across  very  strange  and  frequently  ludicrous  con- 
ceptions of  the  Americans  as  to  their  business  and  life 
in  general.  I  was  talking  with  one  Peruvian  gentle- 
man who  informed  me  that  he  understood  that,  while 
the  United  States  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  was 
really  an  aristocratic  and  cultured  nation,  at  present, 
through  the  lowering  of  ideals  by  the  incoming  of  so 
much  immigration,  the  country  has  greatly  degenerated, 
and  it  is  really  difficult  to  find  what  might  be  called 
"real  gentlemen"  among  the  Yankees.  As  far  as  I 
could  gather  from  his  remarks,  he  held  the  view  that 
certain  Americans  still  hold  a  position  of  education 
and  gentlemanhood  equal  to  the  people  of  South 
America,  but  that  the  majority  of  the  population  are 
in  a  low  state  of  civilisation,  and  lack  particularly  edu- 
cation and  culture. 

One  is  also  impressed  in  visits  to  several  Latin 
American  states  with  the  tendency  to  secure  ideals  and 
information  very  largely  from  Europe.  Peruvians  go 
to  Europe,  and  especially  to  Paris,  not  only  for  their 
models  of  dress,  but  also  for  their  vacations,  mental 
point  of  view,  and  for  the  education  of  their  children. 
As  soon  as  a  Peruvian  is  successful  in  business  his  first 
thought  is  to  stop  work  and  to  make  arrangements  to 
live  on  the  continent  of  Europe  for  a  good  part  of  the 
year. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Peruvians  are  not 
primarily  a  business  people,  that  the  society  of  the  na- 


OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST     191 

tion  which  establishes  the  ideals  are  the  old  families 
descendent  from  the  Spanish  aristocracies,  whose  mem- 
bers live  on  their  dividends,  and  consider  commercial 
activity  demeaning.  Indeed,  Peru  is  unique  among 
South  American  republics  in  proudly  holding  to  its 
old  lines  of  Spanish  ancestry  which  many  of  the  old 
families  trace  directly  back  to  the  house  of  Pizarro 
and  the  old  Spanish  conquerors.  It  is  a  proud  people, 
and,  in  its  upper  social  register,  very  exclusive,  turn- 
ing automatically  on  the  wheel  of  family  lineage. 
Although  the  Peruvians  are  not  as  wealthy  in  this 
world's  goods  as  formerly,  they  are  no  less  desirous  to 
appear  so,  and  one  will  often  see  the  outward  signs  of 
splendour  that  attended  the  rich  era  of  the  ancient  rule 
of  Spain  in  this  republic. 

Because  of  these  traditional  ideals,  the  youth  of  the 
country  are  not  inclined  to  save  their  money,  but  to 
spend  it  in  the  outward  signs  of  prosperity.  They  like 
to  be  "rentiers,"  or  men  who  seem  to  be  able  to  live  on 
their  income  without  work.  It  is  therefore  difficult  to 
tell  the  degree  of  business  success  by  judging  from  the 
clothes  the  men  wear.  One  seldom  sees  better  dressed 
men  anywhere  than  in  Peru.  It  is  too  often  "front," 
or,  as  an  old  resident  of  this  country  put  it,  "They  keep 
the  front  room  up,  but  don't  go  to  the  kitchen." 

It  is  due  to  these  national  heritages  and  character- 
istics that  the  country  has  been  slow  to  improve  its  in- 
dustrial condition.  At  present  the  country  needs  roads, 
railroads  and  country  roads,  to  make  possible  the 
transportation  of  crops  and  the  native  products  of 
the  mines.  The  Andes  shut  the  people  up  to  a  com- 
paratively narrow  tract  on  the  west  coast,  but  as  soon 


192      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

as  roads  are  made  to  tap  the  vast  valleys  and  table- 
lands of  the  interior  on  the  other  side  of  the  first  range 
of  the  Cordilleras,  there  will  be  opened  in  Peru  regions 
equal  in  area  to  the  combined  extent  of  four  or  five 
of  our  largest  states  in  the  Middle  West. 

Another  great  need,  and  business  opportunity  as 
well,  is  along  irrigation  lines.  At  least  75  per  cent  of 
the  rainfall  is  wasted  because  of  the  absence  of  proper 
irrigation.  The  land  of  the  interior  stretches  away 
for  miles  upon  miles  before  the  eye,  all  untouched  in 
its  virgin  condition,  needing  only  water  to  make  possi- 
ble the  growth  of  nearly  everything  germane  to  both 
tropical  and  temperate  zones.  I  write  these  words  in 
the  interior  of  Peru,  8,000  feet  above  sea-level,  in  full 
view  of  the  snows  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Misti,  which 
volcano  towers  nearly  20,000  feet  above  the  sea.  One 
looks  over  a  valley  rich  in  all  agricultural  products, 
with  waving  palms  and  terraced  gardens  and  orchards 
hanging  heavy  with  tropical  fruits.  It  is  the  inland 
city  of  Arequipa,  where  modern  plans  of  irrigation 
have  turned  the  desert  into  a  beautiful  and  prosperous 
community. 

Peru,  with  capital,  possesses  almost  every  imagin- 
able opportunity  for  great  commercial  and  industrial 
progress.  Her  present  business  advance  reveals  her 
future  possibilities.  Her  war  with  Chile  was  indeed  a 
costly  reverse,  for  it  is  said  that  out  of  the  nitrate 
fields  which  Chile  took  from  Peru  the  victorious  re- 
public reaps  sixty  per  cent  of  her  revenue  to-day.  If 
the  above  needs  can  be  met  (and  they  must  be  met 
largely  by  foreign  capital)   the  old  Peru  is  destined 


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PRIMITIVE  PLOWING  IN  CHILE 


OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST     193 

to  awake  from  her  mediaeval  sleep  and  become  truly 
one  of  the  resourceful  nations  of  the  world. 

That  the  United  States  should  have  an  increasing 
part  in  this  progress  is  both  natural  and  possible.  In 
19 13  Peru  gave  the  United  States  six  per  cent  more 
trade  than  she  gave  to  any  other  nation,  and  the  years 
since  reveal  a  much  larger  percentage  of  business  be- 
tween the  two  countries.  The  imports  in  which  the 
United  States  stood  first  with  Peru  in  19 13  were 
chiefly  in  woods,  lumber  and  manufactures;  in  paints, 
dyes,  and  varnishes ;  in  tools,  ship  stores,  machines  and 
vehicles;  and  in  pharmaceutical  products  and  medicines. 
The  leading  exports  of  the  country  are  in  wool,  copper, 
sugar,  hides,  and  various  minerals  in  which  this  moun- 
tainous land  is  extremely  rich. 

The  large  increase  of  imports  of  late  years  is  due  to 
several  causes,  among  the  principal  ones  being. 

First,  the  development  of  hydro-electrical  power  in 
such  concerns  as  the  Cerro  de  Pasco  Mining  Co.,  which 
business  is  said  to  pay  one  half  of  the  export  duty  of 
Peru  at  present;  it  is  also  due  to  the  large  quantities 
of  electrical  material  used  in  the  .other  large  mining 
firm  of  Backus  &  Johnson. 

Second,  the  increase  was  due  to  the  purchase  of  sev- 
eral powerful  American  locomotives  by  the  Peruvian 
Corporation,  which  controls  all  the  railroads  of  Peru. 

Third,  because  of  the  installation  of  modern  sugar 
machinery  in  the  large  progressive  sugar  factories 
along  the  coast,  together  with  the  labour-saving  ma- 
chinery in  the  cotton  mills  of  Lima. 

The  war  conditions  of  19 14,  making  it  impossible 
for  Great  Britain,  Germany  and  France  to  continue 


194      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

furnishing  a  large  part  of  their  usual  material  to  Peru, 
have  turned  the  eyes  of  Peruvian  importers  to  the 
United  States.  A  steady  tide  of  American  products 
is  now  going  towards  this  southern  republic;  yet  the 
Peruvian  business  people  will  tell  you  that,  as  soon  as 
the  war  is  over,  they  will  go  back  to  the  European 
markets  because  of  the  great  expense  of  American 
merchandise.  It  is  commonly  stated  here  that  in  spite 
of  the  sentimental  regard  for  Americans,  there  can  be 
no  sentiment  in  buying  goods  of  a  nation  at  almost 
double  the  price  at  which  the  same  goods  may  be  pro- 
cured in  another  country. 

Lima  women,  for  example,  are  now  buying  American 
shoes,  paying  often  from  nine  to  fifteen  dollars  for  a 
pair  of  shoes  that  sell  ordinarily  in  the  "States"  at  four 
or  five  dollars  a  pair.  This  increase  is  due,  to  be  sure, 
to  the  percentages  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  per 
cent  paid  to  commission  houses,  as  well  as  to  the  fact 
that  the  Austrian  shoes,  which  the  Peruvians  have 
usually  bought,  are  not  coming  at  present.  It  is  noted 
that  Austria  in  times  of  peace  buys  her  hides  from  the 
Near  East  at  moderate  prices,  and  pays  her  labour 
from  fifty  to  seventy  cents  a  day — a  decided  contrast 
to  American  conditions.  Regarding  means  by  which 
the  United  States  could  overcome  these  handicaps,  the 
Commercial  Attache  of  the  United  States  made  two 
valuable  suggestions. 

In  the  first  place,  it  was  suggested  that  the  com- 
missions which  are  sent  to  South  America  should  be 
selected  with  great  care,  and  should  be  guided  by 
persons  who  are  perfectly  familiar  with  South  Ameri- 


OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST     195 

can  conditions  and  temperament.  These  conditions 
furthermore  should  not  be  sidetracked  by  social 
amenities  and  a  continuous  round  of  entertainments 
and  dinners  that  consume  the  time  that  should  be 
given  to  purely  business  matters.  The  illustration  was 
cited  a  number  of  times  by  different  observers  of  the 
return  Commission  which  visited  Peru  in  response  to 
its  appointment  at  the  Washington  Financial  Congress 
of  1 9 14.  To  be  sure,  this  Commission,  coming  directly 
after  the  unfortunate  incident  connected  with  the  visit 
of  the  Commission  on  the  "Tennessee,"  would  have 
seemed  to  be  considerably  handicapped  through  the 
absence  of  social  hospitalities,  which  were  lacking  be- 
cause of  the  outraged  feelings  of  the  Peruvians  rela- 
tive to  what  they  considered  to  be  lack  of  considera- 
tion of  their  feelings  and  hospitality  by  the  "Tennes- 
see" party.  However,  this  proved  to  be  a  blessing  in 
disguise,  for  the  business  men  who  composed  this  later 
Commission  had  time  to  devote  themselves  entirely  to 
commercial  and  industrial  investigation,  with  results 
that  were  valuable  and  far-reaching. 

The  second  suggestion  was  to  the  effect  that  several 
manufacturers  in  the  United  States  get  together  and 
establish  agencies  or  a  commission  house  in  Peru,  sav- 
ing the  commissions  that  now  go  to  the  middlemen 
who  do  business  with  Europe  and  other  countries,  and 
are  therefore  naturally  not  pushing  the  goods  of  any 
one  nation. 

An  English  business  man,  who  is  the  head  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  in  one  of  the  Peruvian  cities, 
said: 


196      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

"Your  American  commissions  investigate  too  much 
down  here.  Why  don't  you  form  a  commission  house?" 

It  would  seem  that  this  suggestion  was  timely  now 
when  the  merchants  of  Peru  are  in  a  transition  stage. 
Their  European  goods  are  virtually  gone,  and  they 
have  not  begun  to  buy  American  goods  on  a  big  per- 
manent scale.  Soon,  however,  they  must  buy  heavily 
somewhere  in  order  to  remain  in  business.  As  one 
American  business  man  of  Lima  said:  "The  people 
here  are  at  an  amazed  standstill,  not  quite  off  with  the 
old,  and  not  quite  on  with  the  new;  it  is  the  most 
strategic  moment  in  the  entire  history  of  the  country." 

One  is  told  in  Peru  that  the  taking  of  the  nitrate 
fields  by  Chile  was  a  blessing  in  disguise  for  Peru,  since 
it  cemented  the  Peruvian  nation  and  made  it  necessary 
for  the  people  to  spend  less  time  in  politics  and  revo- 
lutions and  more  time  in  value-producing  pursuits. 
The  loss  of  the  nitrate  fields  took  away  the  cause  of 
the  revolutions  by  reducing  the  government  revenues, 
for  which  revolutions  were  usually  carried  on. 

I  was  interested  to  know  what  the  Chileans  thought 
of  the  value  of  these  nitrate  fields,  which  are  yielding 
for  Chile  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  million  tons  of 
nitrate  yearly  valued  at  twenty-six  million  pesos.  In 
other  words,  out  of  the  sixty  million  dollar  revenue  of 
the  Chilean  government,  between  thirty-five  and  forty 
millions  come  to  Chile  from  her  nitrate  fields. 

"What  has  been  the  result  of  the  nitrate  industry 
upon  Chilean  business?"  I  asked  of  many  heads  of 
foreign  trading  houses.  The  answer  almost  invariably 
was,  that  it  had  cut  the  nerve  of  business  endeavour  on 
the  part  of  the  Chileans  who  now  depended  largely 


OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST     197 

upon  one  industry,  a  bad  condition  for  any  country. 

When  one  asks  why  the  vast  forest  reserves  of 
southern  Chile  are  not  being  worked,  or  why  greater 
emphasis  is  not  placed  upon  the  production  of  copper, 
wheat  and  other  commodities  in  which  Chile  is  rich, 
the  answer  always  comes: 

"It  is  easier  for  the  people  to  work  the  nitrate  fields 
which  at  present  yield  a  tremendous  product  for  a 
sure  market." 

The  fact  that  Germany  is  said  to  be  producing  yearly 
six  hundred  thousand  tons  of  nitrate  ammonia  and 
promises  to  be  a  fair  competitor  of  Chile  along  this 
line,  does  not  seem  to  affect  the  people's  peace  of  mind. 
Chile,  like  other  South  American  republics,  has  been 
seriously  affected  by  the  European  war,  the  government 
suffering  especially  from  the  shortage  of  revenues  from 
imports.  The  general  import  trade  of  Chile  is  largely 
in  the  hands  of  a  dozen  or  more  big  importing  houses 
which  are  engaged  also  in  export  trade.  These  trading 
houses,  owing  to  Chile's  distance  from  the  great  supply 
market,  find  it  necessary  to  carry  large  stocks  of  im- 
ported merchandise,  which  are  distributed  along  the 
coast.  The  advance  of  freight  rates,  together  with 
the  prices  of  many  commodities  in  former  markets, 
made  it  possible  for  these  houses  to  dispose  of  their 
reserve  stocks  at  a  profit,  because  of  the  fact  that  the 
market  had  received  a  short  supply  of  articles  from 
abroad. 

The  war  increased  the  demand  for  the  production 
and  exportation  of  nitrate  of  silver  and  copper,  and 
the  high  prices  brought  from  these  commodities  gave 
Chile  a  large  amount  of  money  and  helped  to  re-estab- 


198      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

lish  her  trade  conditions  on  as  normal  a  basis  as  could 
be  expected,  in  consideration  of  the  disturbed  state  of 
the  world  markets. 

During  the  year  19 15,  stock  dividends  in  Chile  were 
fifty  per  cent  below  those  of  previous  years,  there  be- 
ing only  about  half  a  dozen  companies  in  the  city  of 
Valparaiso,  for  example,  that  declared  equal  or  larger 
dividends  in  19 15  than  in  the  preceding  year. 

A  summary  of  the  general  conditions  in  the  country 
is  indicated  by  the  following  extract  from  El  Diario 
Illustrado  of  Santiago: 

"The  situation  of  the  country  is  difficult.  It  has 
recovered,  or  is  on  the  way  to  recover,  all  of  its  produc- 
tive force,  but  it  can  not  count  for  safety  on  the  foreign 
market.  Also,  the  lack  of  freights,  or  their  fantastic 
quotations,  almost  effects  an  economic  isolation  of  the 
country.  These  conditions  of  insecurity,  which  also 
considerably  depress  our  export  prices,  will  probably 
be  prolonged  during  the  entire  period  of  the  war. 
After  the  war  we  will  face  formidable  market  uncer- 
tainties and,  although  in  a  less  degree,  many  difficulties 
in  the  matter  of  freights.  Apart  from  these,  the  war, 
which  is  destroying  the  wealth  of  the  greatest  nations, 
will  deprive  us  of  avenues  of  credit,  and  almost  cer- 
tainly will  oblige  us  to  live  for  some  time  on  our  own 
resources.  The  normal  financial  equilibrium  of  the 
country  will  not  be  achieved  except  by  effort  and  by 
sacrifices.  All  fixed  bases  for  the  calculation  of  import 
and  export  tax  revenues  are  wanting,  and  we  find  our- 
selves obliged  to  revise  our  system  of  revenue.  The 
gravest  problems  raised  by  the  European  war  as  yet 
remain  unsolved." 

One  finds  a  decided  increase  of  trade  with  the  United 
States  on  the  part  of  all  business  houses  in  Chile.  This 


OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST     199 

is  not  because  the  Chileans  or  the  English  and  German 
houses  are  especially  inclined  toward  trade  with  Amer- 
ican firms,  but  simply  because  many  European  markets 
are  closed.  One  finds  everywhere  complaints  concern- 
ing high  American  prices,  difficulty  in  getting  orders 
filled  promptly,  grievances  concerning  credits,  and  the 
cries  that  are  always  going  up  from  South  Americans, 
on  the  West  Coast,  especially,  regarding  the  inadequate 
packing  of  American  goods.  Since  the  war  the  pack- 
ing from  the  United  States  has  been  worse  than  ever, 
because  there  have  been  many  new  shippers  who  do 
not  understand  the  need  of  firmly  packed  goods  to 
withstand  the  unusual  and  difficult  processes  of  unload- 
ing products  virtually  on  the  high  seas.  Shippers 
seem  to  be  lamentably  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  there 
is  not  a  single  port  on  the  West  Coast  where  a  steamer 
can  land  at  a  wharf  in  still  water,  but  that  everything 
must  be  taken  from  the  hold  of  the  boat  sailing  from 
the  United  States  to  Panama,  lifted  by  cranes  and 
placed  in  lighters,  often  during  a  heavy  sea ;  the  lighters 
in  turn  upon  reaching  the  shore  must  unload  this  cargo 
under  the  stress  of  big  swells  that  roll  up  from  the 
Antarctic  region  and  also  with  the  additional  disturb- 
ances caused  by  a  strong  backwash  from  the  shore. 

In  coming  down  on  a  Chilean  steamer,  I  was  intensely 
interested  in  the  unloading  of  cargos.  Almost  invari- 
ably it  was  possible  to  pick  out  the  boxes  packed  in  the 
United  States.  A  large  number  of  them  were  broken 
open  because  of  the  fact  that  the  commodities  were 
only  packed  in  skeleton  frames  suitable  for  transporta- 
tion between  cities  in  the  "States."     One  shipment  of 


200     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

chairs  to  an  inland  port  was  in  such  condition  that  it 
seemed  impossible  for  any  more  than  one  half  of  the 
large  shipment  to  reach  its  destination  in  unbroken 
form.  It  is  the  usual  remark  among  ships*  officers 
when  large  boxes,  lifted  into  lighters,  land  with  a  crash 
of  broken  wood  and  a  spilling  out  of  products — 
"There  goes  another  Gringo  order  I" 

On  all  sides  one  hears  from  business  men  in  Chile 
this  remark. 

"The  manufacturers  in  the  United  States  seem  to 
give  no  heed  to  our  needs  down  here :  our  orders  are 
delayed  often  for  six  or  eight  months,  and  we  have  to 
stand  the  losses  of  goods  received  in  bad  condition  or 
orders  filled  incorrectly.  We  are  only  waiting  for  the 
war  to  close  in  order  to  renew  our  trade  with  European 
firms  where  we  receive  better  service  at  lower  prices. 
Europe  wants  our  trade  and  thinks  it  worth  working 
for.     The  United  States  does  not  seem  to  care." 

Every  American  travelling  on  the  West  Coast  at 
present  is  puzzled  to  know  why  we  in  the  United  States 
have  been  talking  so  much  about  getting  South  Ameri- 
can trade  and  at  the  same  time  reveal  such  indifference 
in  actually  securing  and  keeping  it,  when  we  have,  as 
at  present,  the  greatest  opportunity  which  has  ever 
been  afforded  to  us  of  building  up  permanent  South 
American  business. 

The  attitude  of  American  business  is  in  certain  sec- 
tions, at  least,  undergoing  some  change  at  present,  and 
it  may  be  timely  to  add  some  detailed  suggestions  re- 
garding ways  and  means  of  securing  and  conducting 
foreign  business  on  the  West  Coast  of  South  America. 


OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST    201 

In  response  to  a  question  to  Mr.  V.  L.  Havens,  re- 
cently the  United  States  Commercial  Attache  to  Chile, 
regarding  the  various  methods  of  entering  foreign  mar- 
kets, the  following  statement  was  made: 

"The  first  method,  and  undoubtedly  the  one  that  is 
the  primary  step  that  every  manufacturer  has  taken 
when  considering  the  export  trade,  is  by  correspon- 
dence. In  the  event  that  any  interest  in  his  product  is 
developed,  he  has  the  option  of  handling  the  business 
through  export  commission  houses,  who  at  times  are 
the  real  cause  of  the  development  of  the  manufacturer's 
interest;  then  sending  out  travelling  salesmen;  using 
native  houses  as  agencies;  establishing  resident  Amer- 
ican agents;  or  opening  branch  houses.'* 

As  the  foremost  question  of  the  manufacturer  or 
American  business  firm  is  concerning  the  cost  of  start- 
ing his  foreign  business  in  a  country  like  Chile,  I  asked 
concerning  the  expense  of  the  first  step  to  be  taken. 
Mr.  Havens  replied : 

"The  manufacturer  will  doubtless  select  the  cheapest 
method  of  getting  acquainted,  and  that  method  will 
probably  be  by  correspondence.  Even  this  method 
will  cost  something,  and  will  probably  demand  the  em- 
ployment, or  the  assignment,  of  a  clerk  or  expert  secre- 
tary to  that  duty.  It  would  seem  that  the  average  cost 
to  the  average  factory,  providing  there  is  assigned  to 
the  work  a  man  conversant  with  the  language  of  the 
territory  with  which  business  is  sought  (and  there  is 
absolutely  no  use  in  trying  to  use  English  in  this  field) , 
and  a  man  who  is  intelligent  and  has  initiative,  would 
be  something  as  follows: 


202      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 


Clerk  hire                                         $] 

[,350.00 

Literature 

500.00 

Postage  and  stationery 

500.00 

Samples 

100.00 

Advertising  in  export  and  in  some 

foreign  newspapers 

200.00 

Purchase   of  text  books,   govern- 

ment  publications,    extra    credit 

service 

200.00 

Firm  membership  in  some  export 

ass'n. 

150.00 

Total  $3000.00'* 

It  was  further  suggested  in  connection  with  this  first 
move  in  establishing  foreign  business  on  the  West 
Coast  that  an  energetic  export  secretary  might  be  able 
to  present  a  knowledge  of  the  firm's  products  to  six 
thousand  possible  purchasers  during  the  year,  with  an 
average  cost  of  fifty  cents  given  to  each  potential  client. 
When  the  firm,  as  a  result  of  this  work,  has  a  list  of 
one  thousand  or  even  five  hundred  Chilean  business 
houses  who  are  really  interested  in  the  manufactured 
article,  the  advisability  of  sending  out  a  salesman  may 
well  be  considered.  Business  men  here  will  usually  tell 
one  that  the  selection  of  the  expert  secretary,  if  he  has 
been  carefully  chosen  as  a  capable  man,  and  has  made 
himself  familiar  with  the  products  of  the  factory,  will 
be  the  best  man  for  this  salesman's  work,  since  he  is 
familiar  with  the  correspondence.  It  is  thus  important 
that  the  employer  himself  shall  use  his  personal  and 
best  selection  of  this  man  who  is  to  be  the  forerunner 


OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST    203 

of  this  important  branch  of  his  business  in  a  foreign 
land.  It  is  usually  considered  that  the  careful  choosing 
of  an  efficient  man  for  this  work  of  initial  correspond- 
ence would  practically  bring  in  sufficient  orders  in 
advance  to  meet  the  expense  of  this  agent's  first  trip 
abroad. 

In  all  this  prior  correspondence,  if  the  letters  are  not 
signed  personally  by  the  manufacturer  himself  (and 
not  with  a  rubber  stamp) ,  the  secretary  should  be  given 
a  title,  which  would  be  added  to  his  own  personal  sig- 
nature such  as  "Foreign  Sales  Secretary"  or  "Sales 
Manager."  This  first  step  in  gaining  foreign  business 
may  seem  an  unimportant  detail,  but  experience  on  the 
field  proves  absolutely  the  necessity  of  devoting  to  it 
the  most  careful  thought  and  attention. 

The  travelling  salesman  brings  to  all  business  that 
element  which  is  so  essential  in  the  accomplishment  of 
results,  namely,  personal  contact. 

In  South  America,  especially,  he  is  probably  the  only 
man  connected  with  the  interests  in  the  United  States 
whom  the  retailer  sees,  and  his  appearance,  personality 
and  character  will  form  the  mental  picture  in  the  minds 
of  the  client  regarding  the  firm  represented  by  the 
salesman.  As  he  makes  friends  with  the  customer,  so 
will  the  firm,  and  if  the  traveller  creates  unpleasant 
sentiments,  the  firm  will  suffer  in  consequence. 

There  are  many  things  to  be  taken  into  consideration 
regarding  the  salesman  coming  to  the  South  American 
republics,  but  the  first  is  that  he  should  know  his  busi- 
ness and  be  of  a  pleasing  personality.  The  next  is 
that  he  should  speak  the  language  of  the  country, 
which,  with  the  exception  of  Brazil,  is  Spanish.     With- 


204      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

out  this  knowledge  he  will  be  handicapped  and  can  only- 
talk  through  an  interpreter,  and  it  is  well  known  that 
any  argument  passing  through  two  languages  always 
loses  in  force. 

The  representative  of  the  house  should  be  an  edu- 
cated man,  and  be  able  to  conduct  himself  properly  at 
all  times.  South  Americans  are  a  polished,  cosmopoli- 
tan people,  and  have  an  extensive  knowledge  of  coun- 
tries other  than  their  own.  A  rather  laughable  inci- 
dent occurred  at  Payta,  Peru.  An  American  salesman 
was  leaning  over  the  rail  of  the  boat  anchored  in  the 
harbour,  talking  with  a  cultivated  South  American  who 
was  returning  home  from  an  extended  trip  around  the 
world.  They  were  looking  at  the  dreary  wastes  of 
sandy  Payta,  when  the  South  American  said,  "This 
reminds  me  of  Aden,"  referring  to  the  city  on  the  Red 
Sea.  The  American  said,  "Oh,  yes,  that's  the  next 
port !"  The  astonished  man  looked  up  and  said,  "No, 
Aden — Aden  on  the  Red  Sea,  you  know."  The 
American  insisted  that  "Eten"  was  the  next  port,  and 
even  when  the  courteous  man  from  Chile  explained,  the 
American  shook  his  head.  He  had  never  heard  of 
Aden,  but  Eten  was  the  next  port. 

The  travelling  man's  business  is  not  in  society,  but 
rather  with  men  at  their  place  of  business,  yet  he  should 
always  have  dress  clothes,  as  it  is  seldom  that  he  can 
travel  through  South  America  and  not  feel  the  necessity 
of  a  dinner  coat.  He  will  have  to  dress  for  dinner  on 
many  of  the  European  boats,  at  some  of  the  hotels,  and 
occasionally  at  the  clubs  or  theatres  where  he  may  go 
in  the  evening.     He  is  reducing  a  year's  acquaintance 


OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST     205 

to  a  few  days'  time,  and  must  be  seen  always  at  his 
best. 

One  gets  the  idea  that  the  South  American  business 
man  will  not  talk  business,  that  he  wishes  to  discuss  the 
opera  or  the  horse  races  instead  of  the  price  of  tacks 
or  automobiles  or  farm  machinery.  This  is  not  so  at 
all.  It  is  a  fact  that  he  does  not  spring  into  the  sub- 
ject at  hand  with  the  same  speed  as  does  the  American, 
but  he  is  a  business  man  and  understands  why  the 
salesman  is  visiting  him,  and  is  perfectly  willing  not 
to  waste  his  time  in  talking  of  outside  matters. 

The  successful  men  sent  out  here  are  not  the  bluster- 
ing kind  nor  the  profane  kind,  nor  the  kind  that  think 
that  Broadway  is  the  origin  of  latitude  and  longitude 
and  the  sum  of  life.  Getting  business  in  Chile  or 
Bolivia  is  as  difficult  as  it  is  in  Boston  or  Butte,  Mon- 
tana, with  the  added  difference  of  language,  and  a 
chance  for  misunderstanding  concerning  credit  informa- 
tion, transportation  facilities,  knowledge  of  shipping, 
of  insurance,  and  of  the  commercial  laws.  There  is 
also  the  inability  of  the  salesman  to  see  the  head  of  his 
business  and  his  consequent  dependence  upon  his  own 
judgment. 

If  a  traveller  comes  to  Chile,  for  example,  his  fare 
will  be  about  $225.00  from  New  York  to  Valparaiso. 
His  board  and  room  at  a  hotel  will  cost  from  $4.50 
to  $6.00  per  day;  laundry  work  is  about  fifty  per  cent 
higher  than  in  the  United  States  (the  destruction  of 
same  at  least  one  hundred  per  cent  higher),  and  the 
pressing  of  a  suit  or  an  overcoat  costs  from  $1.50  to 
$2.00.  Lunch  at  a  club  or  restaurant  costs  about  $1.50 
to  $2.00  and  dinner  about  twenty-five  cents  more.     If 


206      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

one  has  guests  it  is  almost  the  universal  custom  to 
serve  wine  both  with  lunch  and  dinner.  It  is  figured 
that  $225.00  per  month  should  cover  the  expenses  of 
living  and  a  reasonable  amount  of  entertaining.  It 
will  not  cover  transportation,  cables,  stenographic  help, 
handling  sample  baggage,  sample  rooms,  nor  any  per- 
sonal entertainment.  Railway  rates  are  low,  but  all 
baggage  is  extra,  as  well  as  parlour  seats.  One  sales- 
man, who  has  recently  made  a  trip  through  Bolivia, 
estimated  that  his  travelling  expenses,  including  trans- 
portation, hotel  and  baggage  (about  200  pounds), 
was  about  $250.00  per  month.  This  would  naturally 
vary  slightly  in  each  country,  as  Bolivia  is  more  ex- 
pensive than  Chile  in  hotel  rates.  Where  the  standard 
of  living  is  higher,  the  cost  of  entertaining  would  nat- 
urally be  more  and  incidental  expenses  larger. 

There  is  a  great  advantage  in  having  the  same  man 
cover  the  territory  year  after  year,  as  the  second  trip 
is  likely  to  be  more  satisfactory  than  the  first,  and  the 
salesman  will  be  meeting  with  old  friends  instead  of 
having  to  make  acquaintances  in  each  place.  That  is 
one  of  the  complaints  of  the  South  American  against 
American  firms.  He  says  the  salesmen  from  Euro- 
pean countries  return  year  after  year,  and  he  feels 
they  are  his  friends,  while  the  American  salesman  never 
returns.  The  average  business  man  resents  the  neces- 
sity of  having  to  discuss  his  business  with  a  new  man 
each  year. 

There  is  a  vast  field  in  South  America  for  the  Ameri- 
can manufacturer,  and  he  depends  largely  in  opening 
this  new  field,  arid  of  retaining  the  business  when  once 
gained,   upon   the   personality  of  his   representative. 


OPPORTUNITIES  ON  THE  WEST  COAST    207 

The  Latin  temperament  requires  study.  The  "hurry- 
up"  business  methods  of  our  American  men  will  not 
work  here  with  these  easy-going  people.  They  do 
not  want  an  aggressive,  hustling  salesman  to  burst  into 
their  offices  and  call  them  by  their  first  name  after  the 
first  interview.  They  want  to  deal  with  a  gentleman, 
a  man  of  the  world,  who  can  understand  their  courtesy 
and  return  it. 

They  do  not  understand  the  "self-made"  man,  in 
love  with  his  Creator,  and  they  believe  that  although 
a  man  is  in  business,  it  does  not  or  can  not  prevent 
him  from  being  a  gentleman.  Consequently,  American 
manufacturers  who  are  looking  ahead  and  seeing  the 
vast  possibilities  of  this  southern  country,  should  send 
their  best  men — men  who  can  fit  themselves  to  new 
conditions. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PIONEERS   IN   SOUTH  AMERICAN   TRADE 

"A  right  good  thing  is  prudence, 
And  they  are  useful  friends 
Who  never  make  beginnings 
Until  they  see  the  ends. 
But  give  me  now  and  then  a  man 
And  I  will  make  him  king, 
Just  to  take  the  consequences, 
And  just  to  do  the  thing." 

AN  alumnus  of  Harvard  tells  the  story  of  a  small 
gathering  of  Harvard  graduates,  of  whom 
Colonel  Roosevelt  was  a  member,  meeting  at  Cam- 
bridge for  a  heart-to-heart  talk  relative  to  the  things 
that  help  men  to  succeed.  When  it  came  to  the 
Colonel's  turn  to  make  confession,  he  is  reported  to 
have  said  that  there  were  two  kinds  of  men  who  suc- 
ceed in  life ;  one  because  of  unusual  intellectual  ability, 
and  another  because  of  possessing  the  discernment  to 
see  the  thing  that  every  one  realised  should  be  done, 
but,  while  others  were  thinking  about  it,  this  man  went 
forward  and  did  it. 

There  are  many  who  will  agree  that  Colonel  Roose- 
velt falls  into  this  latter  category,  but  the  trait  is  not 
Rooseveltian  simply;  it  is  American,  and  he  who  tries 
to  analyse  the  historical  development  of  men  and  con- 

208 


PIONEERS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRADE     209 

cerns  in  this  new  world  of  the  West,  will  find  appear- 
ing, again  and  again,  this  virile,  prompt  acceptance  of 
opportunity,  this  combination  of  vision  and  action, 
bringing  about  far-reaching  accomplishment. 

There  are  many  men  in  these  United  States  who 
could  be  taken  to  illustrate  this  principle  woven  into  the 
fibre  of  Americans.  Among  these  becoming  distinc- 
tive in  world-wide  pioneering  in  the  realm  of  shipping, 
trading,  and  transportation  generally,  certain  members 
of  the  house  of  W.  R.  Grace  &  Co.  are  notable.  If 
one  doubts  this  statement,  let  him  ponder  the  fact  that 
this  company's  tonnage  of  steamers,  constructed  by 
themselves,  and  not  including  the  steamers  chartered 
by  them,  reaches  140,000  tons;  that  the  firm  employs  in 
South  American  offices  2,700  men;  that  the  total  em- 
ployes in  the  industrial  establishment  reach  25,000; 
that  the  business  during  the  year  19 17  aggregates 
$250,000,000;  and  that  last  year  Grace  &  Co.  were 
the  largest  shippers  of  coffee  out  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  and 
the  largest  importers  of  nitrate  of  soda  into  the  United 
States. 

Those  who  are  looking  for  significant  events  in  these 
days,  when  the  country  is  beginning  to  take  a  fresh  hold 
upon  marine  matters,  can  find  in  the  story  of  this  activ- 
ity a  subject  for  thoughtful  interest.  On  the  second  day 
of  February,  19 18,  the  Santa  Ana,  the  first  ship  of  a 
new  American  passenger  line,  sailed  from  a  Brooklyn 
pier  for  South  America.  This  line  has  been  authorised 
by  the  United  States  Shipping  Board  to  be  operated  for 
government  account  by  W.  R.  Grace  &  Co.  between 
New  York  and  the  West  Coast  of  South  America. 
The  sailing  marked  the  fulfilment  of  a  long-desired 


210      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

dream.  This  service  represents  eighteen  days  dura- 
tion between  New  York  and  Valparaiso,  as  against 
twenty-five  days  heretofore  required  by  changing 
steamers  at  Panama,  and  Callao,  Peru.  The  passen- 
gers on  the  Santa  Ana  from  New  York  will  be  able  to 
reach  Buenos  Aires  via  the  West  Coast  of  South 
America  and  the  Trans-Andean  Railroad  from  Val- 
paraiso in  twenty-two  days,  which  is  virtually  as  quick 
as  the  fastest  steamers  direct  from  New  York  to  Buenos 
Aires  by  the  East  Coast  route. 

This  line  of  steamers  was  projected  and  the  ships 
ordered  by  W.  R.  Grace  &  Co.,  before  the  war.  When 
all  tonnage  under  construction  was  commandeered  by 
the  United  States  Shipping  Board,  authority  was  given 
for  the  completion  of  these  ships  as  passenger  vessels. 
This  was  done  because  it  is  necessary  to  maintain  dn 
adequate  American  tonnage  for  the  carriage  of  Chile * 
nitrate  so  necessary  for  munition  and  fertilisation, 
reserving  these  new  ships  for  that  trade  the  Shipp  ^% 
Board  fills  the  need  for  a  passenger  line  to  the  W  t 
Coast  in  harmony  with  the  earnest  recommendati -ns 
made  by  the  late  Chilean  Ambassador,  Sr.  Aldunate, 
and  the  International  High  Commission,  of  which  Sec- 
retary McAdoo  is  Chairman,  and  Dr.  L.  S.  Row<*  of 
Philadelphia,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasur  ,  is 
Secretary  General.  At  the  same  time  the  pass'  ger 
service  does  not  represent  an  increase  in  tonnage  f  the 
West  Coast,  for  these  vessels  merely  take  the  pla  e  of 
a  dozen  or  more  Grace  boats  commandeered  by  the 
United  States  and  British  Governments  for  military 
service.     Some  have  been  sunk  by  German  raiders  and 


PIONEERS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRADE     211 

U-boats,  and  one  was  all  but  destroyed  in  the  Halifax 
explosion. 

On  the  return  trip  the  passenger  ships  will  carry 
nitrate,  a  vital  material.  All  the  profits  above  the 
charter  go  to  the  Government. 

One  needs  to  have  made  the  long  and  tedious 
voyage  from  New  York  to  Valparaiso,  weaving  in  and 
out  of  the  open  roadsteads  along  the  bleak  coast  of 
Ecuador,  Peru  and  Chile,  enduring  the  distressing  de- 
lays of  loading  and  unloading  in  each  one  of  these 
small  ports,  where  modern  docking  facilities  are  con- 
spicuous by  their  absence,  in  order  to  appreciate  the 
significance  of  this  new  undertaking. 

Hitherto  all  passenger  service  on  the  West  Coast  of 
South  America  has  been  carried  on  under  the  Brit- 
ish, Chilean,  Peruvian,  and  German  flags.  Even  the 
United  States  mail  could  not  be  carried  south  of  Pan- 
ma  beneath  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  The  Merchants' 
ine,  operating  under  the  American  flag,  has  consisted 
;  c  freight  vessels  only.  At  this  period  when  our  at- 
.  ntion  is  riveted  so  completely  upon  the  war,  such 
e/ents  as  the  sailing  of  the  Santa  Ana  are  easily  ob- 
scured, but  in  normal  times  the  international  signifi- 
cance of  this  sailing  could  justly  have  filled  the  columns 
of  the  press  from  Maine  to  San  Francisco.  Secre- 
tary McAdoo  declared  that,  even  while  the  United 
St  ">es  is  absorbed  in  the  war,  the  inauguration  of  this 
p;  lenger  service  through  the  action  of  the  Shipping 
Be  ;rd,  under  Chairman  Hurley,  demonstrated  the 
Government's  constructive  efforts  to  promote  closer 
commercial  and  social  relations  with  Latin  America. 
It  is  one  of  those  remarkable  accomplishments  achieved 


212      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

in  times  of  war,  looking  forward  to  a  future  of  peace, 
when  the  flag  of  the  United  States  again,  as  in  the 
days  of  the  old  clipper  ships,  will  float  on  the  sea  as 
well  as  on  land. 

It  is  a  significant  event  for  the  merchant  marine, 
and  for  general  trade  with  our  southern  neighbour, 
since  this  line  of  steamships  will  carry  as  freight  ni- 
trates and  other  South  American  materials  necessary  to 
America's  industrial  prosecution  of  the  war,  and  will 
bear  back  to  the  West  Coast  the  merchandise  that 
the  United  States  gives  in  exchange.  The  Santa  Ana 
will  thus  be  a  symbol  of  that  new  reciprocal  trade  be- 
tween North  and  South  America  toward  which  so  many 
earnest  men  in  both  hemispheres  have  looked  and  la- 
boured for  many  a  year. 

Following  the  Santa  Ana  will  come  her  sister  ship 
Santa  Lucia  and  then  later  on  in  this  present  year  of 
19 1 8  the  three  remaining  vessels  of  the  fleet.  These 
"Santa"  ships  are  5,700  dead  weight,  thirteen  and  one- 
half  knots  speed,  each  one  possessing  accommodations 
for  one  hundred  first  class  passengers.  These  steam- 
ers will  burn  oil  exclusively,  and  they  have  capacity 
for  5,400  tons  of  cargo.  One  notes  that  the  cabins 
are  all  on  the  superstructure,  showing  that  their  build- 
ers had  in  mind  comfortable  travel  in  the  tropics. 
It  is  expected  that  after  the  war  a  considerable  Amer- 
ican tourist  traffic  to  the  West  Coast  will  fill  these 
splendid  steamers.  The  line  will  be  operated  as  a 
common  carrier,  subject  to  the  regulation  of  the  United 
States  Shipping  Board  regarding  rates  and  facilities 
of  service.  As  the  American  traveller  has  always  had 
a  large  part  in  the  opening  of  American  foreign  trade, 


PIONEERS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRADE     213 

the  strategic  value  of  this  progressive  achievement  can 
be  realised,  even  by  the  least  imaginative  of  men. 

The  importance  of  the  inception  of  this  line  of  pas- 
senger boats  can  be  further  appreciated  by  a  glance 
at  the  picture  of  the  old  sailing  vessel  built  in  1873,  an 
American  ship  of  1,893  tons,  with  three  decks,  rep- 
resenting one  of  the  best  of  her  kind  and  period.  This 
old  ship  carried  general  cargo  from  New  York  to  San 
Francisco,  sailing  around  the  Southern  Continent,  and 
taking  from  eighty-five  to  one  hundred  days.  On  her 
long  voyage  she  stopped  at  ports  along  the  West  Coast 
for  guano,  and  at  San  Francisco  she  unloaded  her 
cargo  and  took  on  grain  for  Liverpool.  It  is  well  to 
stop  for  a  moment  to  ponder  the  meaning  of  these  two 
ships,  the  one  representing  the  flourishing  commerce 
of  another  generation — then  an  intervening  period  of 
forty  years — and  now  one  of  the  first  signals  of  the 
renaissance  of  a  new  shipping  day  for  the  United  States, 
when  Americans  are  beginning  afresh  to  lay  the  foun- 
dations of  marine  intercommunication  with  the  entire 
world. 

There  are  few  more  interesting  stories  of  ships  and 
trade  than  the  one  connected  with  the  firm  whose  vision 
and  efficiency  have  made  possible  these  wide  reaching 
achievements.  It  is  a  tale  of  inspiring  accomplish- 
ment, and  like  other  accomplishments  in  their  begin- 
nings at  least,  it  is  woven  about  the  work  and  person- 
ality of  a  single  man. 

W.  R.  Grace  &  Co.,  whose  activity  extends  over 
seventy  years  of  remarkable  history,  covering  nearly 
every  phase  of  trading,  transportation,  banking,  and 
the  alert  acceptance  of  foreign  financial  opportunity, 


214      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

began  its  development  in  the  adventurous  determina- 
tion of  William  Russell  Grace,  who  was  born  in 
Queenstown,  County  Cork,  Ireland,  May  ioth,  1832. 
His  parents  were  well-to-do  Irish  landowners.  It  is 
said  that  Mr.  Grace  received  his  first  impression  of 
America  by  mixing  with  American  sailors  in  the  port 
of  his  home  town.  There  are  many  romantic  stories 
of  his  early  life,  one  of  which  narrates  the  way  in 
which  at  fourteen  he  ran  away  from  home  to  board 
a  sailing  vessel  as  cabin  boy,  a  vessel  that  brought 
young  Grace  to  New  York  as  his  first  landing  place 
on  the  Western  continent. 

During  these  early  years  Mr.  Grace  found  his  way 
to  Peru,  and  there,  before  he  was  twenty  years  old,  he 
became  manager  of  the  English  firm  of  John  Bryce, 
which  later  became  Bryce,  Grace  &  Co.,  and  then  Grace 
Bros.  Co.  Mr.  Grace's  father  before  him  had  been 
trying  to  colonise  Peru,  and  it  was  natural  that  the 
son's  interest  should  turn  in  the  same  direction. 

The  advent  of  Mr.  Grace  in  the  country  of  Pizarro 
was  an  epoch-making  event  in  the  history  of  Peru,  as 
well  as  in  his  own  career.  His  allegiance  to  the  United 
States  was  shown  early  in  his  work  when,  during  the 
American  civil  war,  both  the  English  and  native  houses 
of  Peru  decided  against  extending  credit  to  vessels  of 
the  United  States  Navy  which  frequently  stopped  at 
Callao  for  naval  supplies.  Although  Mr.  Grace  was 
not  an  American  citizen  at  that  time,  he  unhesitatingly 
placed  the  resources  of  his  house  at  the  disposal  of  the 
United  States  Navy,  thus  bridging  over  successfully  a 
delicate  international  situation. 

After  twenty  years  of  work  in  Peru,  this  pioneering 


PIONEERS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRADE     215 

trader,  because  of  ill  health,  was  compelled  to  retire 
from  business.  It  is  indicative  of  the  type  of  man  as 
of  his  industry,  that  he  returned  from  Peru  with  a 
capital  of  about  $300,000.  Branches  of  the  house 
had  been  established  already  in  Lima,  Callao,  Val- 
paraiso, San  Francisco,  Santiago  and  Concepcion.  The 
firm  controlled  a  large  share  of  the  foreign  shipping 
trade  on  the  South  American  west  coast,  a  business 
which  has  constantly  increased  with  many  ramifica- 
tions, until  now  the  name  of  Grace  &  Co.  is  as  famil- 
iar as  a  household  word  in  well-nigh  every  section  be- 
tween Panama  and  Patagonia.  The  traveller  to-day 
is  shown  a  small  fishing  shanty  in  Callao  which  is  said 
to  be  the  site  of  Mr.  Grace's  first  business  house  in 
South  America — the  humble  beginning  of  more  than 
sixty  branches  and  agencies  of  the  present  large  for- 
eign business  of  this  company  in  Latin  America. 

The  New  York  branch  of  the  company  was  estab- 
lished in  the  year  1868.  Mr.  Grace  rapidly  became 
financially  powerful  as  director  of  the  Lincoln  Bank, 
the  New  York  and  Pacific  Steam  Ship  Company,  the 
New  York  Life  Insurance  Company,  and  as  President 
of  the  Ingersoll  Sargeant  Drill  Company.  He  touched 
all  of  his  enterprises  with  the  wand  of  success. 

In  1880  the  famine  in  Ireland  brought  Mr.  Grace 
prominently  into  public  attention.  His  large  contri- 
butions to  the  Relief  Fund  called  forth  deep  apprecia- 
tion from  his  native  land.  In  the  same  year  he  be- 
came candidate  for  Mayor  of  New  York  City  and  was 
opposed  by  all  the  newspapers  except  the  Star;  as  has 
happened  repeatedly  in  New  York,  he  was  elected  for 


216      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

a  two  year  term  without  the  majority  of  the  press 
support. 

Mr.  Grace  was  a  reformer  as  well  as  merchant  and 
trader.  He  was  responsible  for  the  passage  of  the 
bill  depriving  the  police  of  control  over  street  cleaning, 
and  examination  of  the  newspaper  accounts  of  that 
period  lead  one  to  believe  that  the  streets  of  New 
York  for  the  first  time  in  their  history  began  to  take 
on  a  semblance  of  cleanliness.  He  also  reduced  the 
tax  rate,  and  at  the  end  of  his  term,  in  the  whirligig  of 
political  fortunes,  he  was  exuberantly  praised  by  all 
the  newspapers  of  the  city  with  the  exception  of  the 
Star,  the  one  paper  that  supported  him  at  the  begin- 
ning. When  General  Grant  died,  Mayor  Grace  of- 
fered the  parks  of  the  city  for  his  burial  ground.  In 
1884,  after  being  out  of  office  for  two  years,  he  was 
again  nominated  for  Mayor  of  the  city  by  an  inde- 
pendent democratic  party,  and  in  a  hotly  contested 
election  he  carried  the  city  by  ten  thousand  votes. 

It  is  of  interest  in  looking  backward  to  note  the  in- 
fluence Mr.  Grace  played  in  the  election  of  Grover 
Cleveland  for  President.  The  State  of  New  York  fa- 
voured Hill  for  Presidential  nominee,  but  Mr.  Grace, 
thinking  Cleveland  the  better  man,  took  it  upon  him- 
self to  canvass  the  whole  United  States  and  arouse 
sentiment  in  favour  of  Cleveland's  nomination.  With 
the  arousal  of  the  other  states  of  the  Union,  it  is  fairly 
granted  that  Mr.  Grace  exerted  one  of  the  chief  in- 
fluences for  bringing  President  Cleveland  into  the 
White  House. 

The  far-reaching  influence  of  the  founder  of  this 
house,  together  with  his  strong  financial  and  commer- 


PIONEERS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRADE     217 

cial  leadership,  was,  from  the  beginning,  important  for 
South  America. 

During  the  period  of  Mr.  Grace's  political  career 
the  business  and  the  scope  of  the  firm  were  reaching 
large  proportions.  During  the  financial  troubles  of 
Peru,  when,  between  1865  and  1871,  Peru  had  con- 
tracted a  debt  with  English  bondholders  amounting 
with  interest  to  $200,000,000,  the  Grace  firm  played 
an  important  role.  In  the  year  1887  Mr.  M.  P. 
Grace  tried  to  reach  an  agreement  whereby  the  rail- 
roads of  Peru  could  be  turned  over  to  the  bondhold- 
ers in  payment  of  the  debt,  offering  his  services  as 
agent  in  the  transaction.  Peru  in  1889  accepted  the 
plans  of  the  Grace  bondholders'  contract,  and  it  was 
then  that  W.  R.  Grace  &  Co.,  a  firm  of  only  a  genera- 
tion's growth,  took  upon  its  shoulders  the  national 
Peruvian  debt  of  $250,000,000  in  payment  of  which 
obligation  it  contracted  to  develop  the  railroads,  min- 
eral, chemical,  guano  and  other  resources  of  the  coun- 
try for  a  period  of  sixty-six  years. 

The  assumption  of  this  national  debt  by  the  Grace 
Co.  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  of  prosper- 
ity for  Peru.  The  war  with  Chile  had  left  Peru  with- 
out capital  or  energy  sufficient  to  pay  the  indemnity 
levied  upon  her  by  Chile,  and  her  credit  finally  be- 
came exhausted  to  such  an  extent  that  bondholders 
began  to  clamour  for  their  money.  At  this  crisis  Mr. 
Grace  offered  his  services  to  both  bondholders  and  the 
Peruvian  government,  making  the  contract  that  can- 
celled the  foreign  debt  of  the  country.  Under  this 
provision  the  bondholders  released  the  government 
"fully,  absolutely  and  irrevocably  from  all  responsibil- 


218      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ities  for  the  loans  of  1869,  1870  and  1872."  In  re- 
turn the  government  ceded  to  the  bondholders  all  the 
railways  for  sixty-six  years  and  the  products  of  its 
guano  beds,  etc.  It  was  a  triumph  of  financiering, 
worthy  of  the  highest  ability  and  far-sighted  instincts 
in  foreign  enterprises. 

The  house  of  Grace,  always  interested  in  ships  as 
one  of  the  main  understructures  of  its  work,  started 
the  direct  pioneer  steamship  line  between  New  York 
and  the  West  Coast  of  South  America  in  1892,  and 
the  Grace  clipper  service  to  San  Francisco  came  in 
the  same  year.  From  this  date  both  of  these  lines 
have  increased  with  great  rapidity,  and  their  manage- 
ment gives  high  promise  for  the  development  of  the 
new  lines  now  being  projected. 

In  1894,  all  the  Grace  houses  were  consolidated  into 
a  corporation  under  the  name  of  W.  R.  Grace  &  Co. 
The  firm  completed  in  1910  the  gigantic  railroad  en- 
terprise across  the  Cordilleras,  the  Trans-Andes  Rail- 
road, thus  making  a  through  railroad  system  from 
Valparaiso  to  Buenos  Aires,  which  will  forever  rank  as 
one  of  the  great  railroad  accomplishments  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Grace's  activities  in  politics  ended  when,  in 
1895,  he  resigned  from  the  chairmanship  of  the  State 
Democratic  Committee  by  reason  of  the  condition  of 
his  health  and  the  requirements  of  his  growing  busi- 
ness. On  March  21st,  1904,  Mr.  Grace  died,  leav- 
ing the  mantle  of  his  leadership  and  responsibilities 
upon  his  son  and  the  loyal  and  capable  body  of  men 
whom  he  had  gathered  about  him  during  these  years, 
when  one  of  the  great  trading  and  transportation 
houses  was  in  formation  and  development.     Among 


PIONEERS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRADE     219 

the  services  growing  out  of  this  house  is  the  Grace 
Institute  established  in  1898,  an  establishment  for  the 
training  of  young  women  in  business  and  domestic  sci- 
ence. To  this  institution  Mr.  Grace  gave  a  most  gen- 
erous sum  for  its  foundation,  and  his  interest  was  ac- 
tive in  it  so  long  as  he  lived.  The  work  is  now  carried 
on  by  his  family  under  the  direction  of  the  Sisters  of 
St.  Vincent  de  Paul. 

A  study  of  this  operating  company  increases  the  con- 
viction that  foreign  trade,  while  it  must  have  ships, 
carrying  ships  for  produce  and  passenger  ships  through 
the  medium  of  which  men  in  different  countries  may 
become  acquainted,  there  must  be  laid  also  a  basis  for 
work  over  wide  areas.  In  other  words,  it  is  the  busi- 
ness of  such  a  house  to  make  the  trade  for  ship  car- 
riers; and  this  the  Grace  house  has  accomplished  in  a 
manner  unknown  to  those  who  have  not  given  atten- 
tion to  its  wide-spreading  agencies. 

Apart  from  the  central  offices  in  New  York,  one 
will  find  to-day  branches  of  the  company  in  at  least 
fifteen  different  cities  of  the  United  States,  stretching 
all  the  way  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  In 
the  San  Francisco  branch  alone  three  hundred  men 
are  engaged.  The  service  flag  of  the  New  York  house 
contains  105  stars,  about  one  employe  in  five  being 
under  arms.  In  Canada  at  Montreal,  in  Central' 
America  and  the  West  Indies;  in  Mexico,  Guatemala, 
Salvador,  Nicaragua,  Costa  Rica,  Panama,  Cuba  and 
Jamaica,  in  some  of  these  countries  several  branches; 
on  the  West  Coast  of  South  America;  in  Chile  at 
twenty  different  cities  and  towns;  and  in  Peru  at  six- 
teen points  the  Grace   agencies   are  established.     In 


220      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Bolivia,  the  mountain  republic,  Grace  &  Co.  is  do- 
ing business  with  five  stations.  Ecuador  has  flourish- 
ing agencies  at  Guayaquil  and  Quito ;  Argentina  on  the 
East  Coast,  at  Buenos  Aires;  Brazil  at  Rio  de  Ja- 
neiro and  Santos ;  and  in  Venezuela,  the  traveller  finds 
a  branch  at  Caracas. 

The  company  has  reached  out  into  Europe  preparing 
there  foundations  for  its  world  trade;  in  London, 
Liverpool,  Manchester,  Genoa,  Stockholm,  Barcelona, 
Madrid  and  Petrograd,  one  will  meet  with  the  repre- 
sentatives of  this  company  in  branches  under  various 
names. 

This  entire  work  is  served  by  the  three  steamship 
companies  owned  by  this  house,  the  Grace  Steamship 
Company,  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Steamship  Company, 
New  York  and  Pacific  Steamship  Company,  Ltd.,  while 
it  has  a  substantial  interest  in  the  Pacific  Mail  Steam- 
ship Company. 

In  answer  to  my  question  as  to  the  general  aims  of 
this  house,  a  member  of  the  firm  said: 

"We  are  building  always:  we  consider  ourselves  to 
be  merchants  primarily,  but  the  activities  of  the  com- 
pany are  many  and  diverse.  We  are  industrial  de- 
velopers, steamship  men,  bankers,  nitrate  merchants 
as  well  as  promoters  of  all  kinds  of  public  service  and 
industries — everything  in  fact  that  tends  especially  to 
the  development  of  South  America,  where  our  activities 
have  so  largely  centred." 

In  Chile,  for  example,  there  is  need  of  a  woollen  mill, 
a  cotton  mill,  or  a  large  sugar  development,  or  trolley 
lines.     The  company  sees  the  opportunity  and  is  ready 


PIONEERS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRADE     221 

to  finance  and  develop  the  enterprise.  Water  and 
light  are  required  for  the  towns  far  in  the  interior, 
and  the  agents  of  this  firm  become  the  pioneers  of  civ- 
ilisation through  large  areas  isolated  from  the  modern 
world.  It  neither  seeks  nor  operates  concessions  from 
governments. 

The  nitrate  properties  of  South  America  developed 
and  carriecl  on  by  this  company  form  a  large  foreign 
business  by  themselves.  There  are  eight  or  ten  of 
these  properties,  employing  fifteen  thousand  men. 

A  portion  of  the  terminal  facilities,  about  one-tenth 
of  all  such  facilities  along  the  West  Coast  of  South 
America,  in  places  like  the  big  nitrate  port  of  Anto- 
fagasta,  for  example,  are  owned  by  the  company,  as 
well  as  the  wharves,  the  launches  and  the  tugs.  There 
is  no  more  familiar  sight  in  the  frequent  stoppings  of 
the  Chilean  and  Peruvian  steamers  along  the  West 
Coast  than  the  Grace  launch. 

In  Bolivia  one  finds  large  lumber  mills,  as  along 
the  coast  of  Peru  he  visits  the  guano  estates  and 
branch  houses  dealing  in  nitrate  of  soda  in  Chile. 
There  are  three  big  cotton  mills  back  of  Lima  that 
correspond  in  size  and  work  with  like  institutions  in 
any  part  of  the  world.  I  visited  some  of  these  and 
was  amazed,  not  only  at  the  large  accomplishments, 
but  also  at  the  equipment  in  modern  machinery  and  the 
organisation  of  the  workers. 

One  soon  learns  that  the  common  idea  that  this  com- 
pany is  simply  a  big  commission  house,  is  a  most  in- 
adequate description  of  this  enterprise.  This  was  only 
an  early  stage  in  its  progress.  Its  activity  now  is  that 
of  the  merchant,  buying  and  selling,  and  transporta- 


222      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tion  in  ships.  Not  long  ago  the  Government  of  Chile 
required  a  new  railroad  shop,  repair  shops,  and  every- 
thing going  with  the  equipment  of  machinery  and  fa- 
cilities; the  Grace  company  contracted  to  bring  the 
entire  plant  into  being. 

Through  the  leadership  of  Mr.  W.  R.  Grace  the 
firm  figured  in  the  early  attempt  to  build  the  Nic- 
aragua Canal.  In  1897-98  Mr.  Grace  gathered 
twenty-five  men  into  a  syndicate  which  raised  a  fund 
of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  spending  $400,000 
in  the  early  plans  for  the  building  of  the  canal.  Going 
to  President  McKinley  with  his  project,  Mr.  Grace  re- 
ceived the  following  answer  from  the  President: 

"This  is  interesting,  but  how  are  you  going  to  get 
the  money?"  The  merchant  answered,  "I  will  raise 
one  hundred  million  dollars  and  shall  expect  the  United 
States  to  put  up  another  hundred  million  at  a  low  rate 
of  interest.  Our  syndicate  wants  to  build  the  Nic- 
aragua Canal  and  we  have  shown  our  practical  desire 
by  already  expending  nearly  half  a  million  dollars." 

(This  undertaking  more  than  twenty  years  ago 
should  not  be  confused  nor  connected  with  the  War- 
ner-Miller episode  or  with  such  attempts  as  the  one 
with  which  Senator  Morgan  was  associated.) 

After  some  thought  about  the  matter,  President 
McKinley  informed  Mr.  Grace  that  the  Government 
wished  to  build  the  Panama  Canal.  The  merchant 
asked  what  would  be  done  to  reimburse  his  associates 
for  the  half  million  dollars  already  spent  on  the  proj- 
ect, at  which  Mr.  McKinley  answered: 

"You  men  are  all  wealthy  and  can  afford  to  lose 
the  money." 


PIONEERS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRADE 

Mr.  Grace  cheerfully  accepted  the  decision  and 
went  on  with  his  other  work. 

In  my  contact  with  this  house  in  various  parts  of 
South  America  I  have  been  impressed  with  what  is 
called  the  "Grace  spirit."  The  attempt  is  made,  suc- 
cessfully for  the  most  part,  to  show  the  various  agents 
and  men  connected  with  the  company  that  the  house 
represents  a  great  American  enterprise,  and  that  each 
representative  stands  for  something  more  than  a  mere 
business  agent,  that,  in  fact,  he  reflects  the  ideals  of  the 
nation  behind  him. 

I  was  much  interested  in  the  club  or  the  mess,  as  it 
is  often  called,  where  Grace  men  live  together  in  South 
American  countries.  A  house  is  rented  and  made 
homelike  as  a  place  for  the  men  without  families.  A 
steward  and  treasurer  are  elected,  and  the  house  is 
equipped  with  reading  matter,  billiard  tables,  pianola, 
and  other  conveniences  for  producing  a  homelike  at- 
mosphere. Many  of  the  plants  are  situated  far  from 
the  cities,  and  these  clubs  are  virtually  oases  in  far 
away  sections  of  Peru,  Bolivia  and  Chile,  where  the 
comforts  and  amenities  of  civilisation  have  not  yet 
penetrated. 

In  a  great  nitrate  community  in  Chile,  for  instance, 
there  may  be  only  a  small  circle  of  Americans  repre- 
senting the  officers,  possibly  half  a  dozen  or  nine  men 
who  are  responsible  for  running  an  enormous  plant. 
Outside  is  the  camp  for  the  workmen.  The  evenings 
for  Americans  in  such  localities  are  likely  to  be  a 
nightmare  of  loneliness.  There  is  lack  of  companion- 
ship and  social  opportunities  such  as  those  to  which  the 
men  have  been  accustomed  at  home.     The  company 


224      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

has  been  quick  to  appreciate  this  fact  and  to  provide, 
not  only  comfortable  quarters,  but  to  establish  customs 
intended  to  give  the  officers  a  life  by  themselves,  and 
to  prevent  such  unfortunate  mixtures  with  the  camp 
community  as  would  disrupt  discipline  and  morals.  I 
found  it  the  custom  for  every  one  of  the  official  staff 
from  the  manager  down,  after  work  was  over,  to  don 
a  dress  suit  or  dinner  jacket  preparatory  for  dinner, 
while  afterwards,  opportunities  were  offered  for  games 
and  amusements  in  the  club.  As  one  man  put  it, 
"None  of  us  are  inclined  to  find  our  way  down  to  the 
camps  in  a  dinner  jacket.  When  you  put  on  the  dress 
of  a  gentleman  you  are  inclined  to  act  like  one." 

On  the  big  sugar  estates  at  Cartavia,  in  Peru,  a 
church  has  been  founded  recently,  also  a  schoolhouse, 
a  hospital  and  a  moving  picture  theatre.  The  influ- 
ence of  these  organisations  has  been  manifested  di- 
rectly upon  the  community  of  workmen.  Formerly  it 
was  customary  during  the  holidays  for  "every  one  to 
get  drunk  for  a  week,"  according  to  the  statement  of 
one  of  the  men.  One  of  the  dealers  in  chicha,  the 
Peruvian  national  drink,  stated  to  a  manager  not  long 
ago,  that  as  a  result  of  the  church  and  theatre  busi- 
ness, he  had  been  obliged  to  go  out  of  business;  for 
while  he  had  been  accustomed  to  sell  ten  barrels  of 
chicha  during  certain  holiday  periods,  it  was  now  im- 
possible for  him  to  get  rid  of  more  than  one  barrel. 
It  has  further  resulted  that  instead  of  several  days  of 
shut-down  on  account  of  the  dissipation  of  the  holi- 
days, there  is  rarely  more  than  one  day  of  stoppage  on 
the  estates  through  any  inability  of  the  men  to  work 
as  a   result  of  excessive   indulgence   in   drink.      The 


PIONEERS  IN  SOUTH  AMERICAN  TRADE     225 

Grace  Institute  has  helped  in  making  these  isolated 
plantations  and  estates  enjoyable  and  livable.  Last 
year  two  hundred  presents  were  sent  down  to  this  par- 
ticular sugar  estate  at  Christmas  time,  with  several 
hundred  boxes  of  candy  and  other  gifts.  Such  work, 
as  one  man  said,  "has  put  Christmas  on  the  map  in 
this  community." 

A  glance  at  these  efforts  toward  the  building  of  for- 
eign trade  impresses  the  fact  that  the  United  States, 
through  the  medium  of  its  business  men,  is  confronted 
with  a  diverse  problem  relative  to  the  enlarging  com- 
merce with  other  nations,  and  especially  with  South 
America.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  merchant  ma- 
rine comes  first  as  a  primal  requirement,  but  ships  are 
only  one  part  of  the  problem.  They  are  carriers  only, 
and  the  development  of  trade  depends  upon  a  variety 
of  agencies  such  as  are  here  outlined, — agencies  that 
have  been  wrought  out  through  seventy  years  of  ex- 
perience by  one  American  firm.  What  Grace  &  Co. 
have  done  in  South  America,  other  houses  can  do,  and 
doubtless  will  do  in  the  coming  years.  It  will  be  eas- 
ier, furthermore,  for  American  traders  and  merchants 
and  steamship  men  to  plant  their  work  in  the  foreign 
soil  of  Latin  America  because  of  such  far-sighted  and 
efficient  pioneering.  Grace  &  Co.  is  one  of  the  Amer- 
ican houses  which  have  successfully  led  the  way. 
These  men  have  revealed,  for  Government  and  for 
manufacturers  and  shippers  generally,  some  things 
that  can  be  done. 

The  insistent  question  which  every  enterprising 
business  house  of  our  country  must  face  to-day  is 
this:    "How  can  our  particular  house  most  quickly  and 


226      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

efficiently  fall  into  line  along  the  great  trade  routes 
that  lead  to  South  America,  thus  casting  out  a  sheet 
anchor  for  our  future,  and  adding  the  commerce  of  the 
seas  to  business  at  home?,, 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   ARGENTINES 

AFTER  months  of  travel  and  mingled  experiences 
along  the  west  coast  of  South  America,  where 
one  has  found  the  months  of  June,  July  and  August 
as  cold  as  November  in  the  United  States,  the  traveller 
is  possessed  with  a  sense  of  relief  as  he  finds  himself 
sliding  down  the  eastern  side  of  the  Andes  into  the 
great  vineyards  and  smiling  gardens  of  Argentina.  It 
seems  hardly  credible  that  one  day's  ride  on  the 
Trans-Andean  railway  is  sufficient  to  bring  one  out  of 
the  region  where  furs  and  steamer  rugs  are  quite  ac- 
ceptable, into  this  vast  land  of  seemingly  endless  plains, 
marked  with  all  the  signs  of  the  temperate  zone. 

In  many  respects  Argentina  impresses  .one  as  being 
a  different  world  from  that  of  the  more  mediaeval  and 
less  progressive  agricultural  and  industrial  republics 
west  of  the  Andes. 

Mendoza,  the  first  large  Argentine  town  one  sees 
after  crossing  the  mountains,  is  like  a  patch  of  Cal- 
ifornia with  its  wide  orchards,  its  extensive  vineyards 
and  its  acres  of  melons,  peaches,  apricots  and  fields  of 
maize.  The  train  whirls  one  through  great  planta- 
tions of  fruit  trees,  and  you  are  told  that  Mendoza 
alone  has  more  than  3,000  acres  of  such  orchards  as 
well  as   140,000  acres  of  irrigated  land,  producing 

227 


228      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

grapes.  Already  the  fruit  from  this  section  is  find- 
ing its  way  into  the  New  York  markets,  and  larger  ar- 
rangements than  ever  before  have  recently  been  made 
to  ship  Argentine  grapes  to  the  United  States  next 
autumn.  As  this  fruit  supply,  unequalled  in  quality 
even  in  California,  will  reach  North  America  in  the 
off  season  for  grapes,  this  export  business,  which  is  a 
comparatively  new  thing  for  Argentina  as  regards 
fruits  and  vegetables,  is  rich  in  promise. 

It  is,  however,  when  the  traveller  has  made  a  night's 
run  from  the  strictly  mountain  towns  and  wakens  to 
look  out  of  the  windows  of  his  sleeping  car  to  behold 
the  vast  pampa  of  level  and  productive  plain  unrolling 
before  him  on  all  sides,  that  the  real  Argentina  begins 
to  be  tangible.  It  is  like  sailing  on  almost  a  perfectly 
level  sea  that  bends  away  to  the  horizon,  with  naught 
to  obstruct  the  vision  save  here  and  there  a  clump  of 
poplars,  which  signifv  the  ranch  buildings  of  a  big 
"estancia." 

One  is  struck  with  the  absence  of  woods,  but  as  one 
proceeds  and  studies  the  landscape  he  sees  great  herds 
of  cattle,  immense  flocks  of  sheep  and  here  and  there 
grey  patches,  which  on  nearer  view  are  discovered  to 
be  composed  of  Argentine  ostriches.  Then  there  are 
the  stretches  of  grain  fields  which  seem  to  reach  every- 
where and  have  no  boundaries — thousands  of  acres  of 
wheat  and  corn.  One  has  reached  the  country  where 
farms  are  measured  not  by  acres  but  by  square  leagues, 
and  if  you  ask  the  size  of  a  farm,  the  answer  will  often 
fairly  appal  you — for  these  vast  feudal  "estancias" 
comprise  all  the  way  from  12,000  to  200,000  acres 
each,  and  agriculture  is  on  a  scale  that  would  seem 


THE  ARGENTINES  229 

fabulous  even  to  the  farmers  in  Kansas,  Nebraska  and 
the  Dakotas. 

One  of  the  stations  one  passes  through  early  in  the 
day  is  called  "Open  Door."  It  seemed  a  fitting  title 
to  this  resourceful  country  of  incalculable  potentiality, 
where  the  national  domain  still  consists  of  upwards  of 
200,000,000  acres  of  undivided  land  suitable  for  cul- 
tivation, when  properly  irrigated. 

The  element  of  contrast  between  this  progressive 
agricultural  country  and  the  republics  on  the  west  coast 
is  decidedly  impressive.  The  differences  are  so  great 
that  the  attempt  to  generalise  regarding  the  people  or 
the  resources  of  the  South  American  republics  usually 
ends  in  showing  but  one  side  of  the  picture.  How 
could  one,  for  example,  speak  of  the  small  patches  of 
cultivated  land,  in  the  mountains  of  southern  Peru, 
upon  which  the  Indians  eke  out  a  scanty  existence,  in 
the  same  breath  with  these  vast  Argentine  farms  sup- 
plied with  virtually  every  modern  convenience  of  steel 
and  iron?  These  ancient  descendants  of  the  Incas 
driving  their  herds  of  llamas  and  alpacas  on  the  sides 
of  the  Peruvian  Cordilleras,  would  find  themselves  in 
a  new  world  and  strange  here  in  this  immense  country 
wih  its  30,000,000  head  of  horned  cattle,  its  70,000,- 
000  sheep  and  8,000,000  horses,  a  country  that  esti- 
mates its  live  stock  capital  in  terms  of  wealth  amount- 
ting  to  $650,000,000. 

The  very  stature  of  the  people,  together  with  their 
vigour  and  independent  initiative,  are  changed  as  soon 
as  one  crosses  the  great  divide  and  comes  into  con- 
tact with  the  railroad  officials  of  this  rapidly  growing 
republic.    It  is  much  more  like  the  United  States  here 


230      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

in  Argentina,  and  modernity  confronts  one  on  every 
side.  The  labouring  man  is  no  longer  a  dark-skinned 
chola  or  a  picturesque  Indian  bending  beneath  an  in- 
tolerable load,  with  his  eyes  on  the  ground,  trotting 
along  with  that  peculiar  motion  characteristic  of  the 
human  beast  of  burden;  here  rather  he  is  an  upstand- 
ing, self-respecting  labourer,  alert — and  looking  for 
the  new  and  rapidly  opening  doors  of  opportunity  in 
his  progressive  republic.  He  is,  indeed,  for  the  most 
part  of  European  stock,  from  Italy,  France  and  Spain, 
and  he  has  come  to  Argentina  as  Europeans  have  been 
coming  to  the  United  States  for  the  past  thirty-five 
years,  to  make  for  himself  a  home.  The  immigrants  to 
Argentina,  furthermore,  have  been  as  a  rule  superior 
to  those  who  have  come  from  Italy  to  the  United 
States.  The  Argentine  Italian  is  not  usually  from 
Naples  or  Sicily,  but  from  the  northern  provinces,  and 
he  comes  here  to  engage  in  commerce,  even  more  than 
for  labour  upon  the  land.  One  notices  the  difference 
in  the  family  life,  the  women  and  children  looking 
far  more  prosperous  and  well  fed,  while  the  homes 
are  better  as  compared  with  those  found  in  the  United 
States  in  industrial  communities,  where  the  immigrants 
from  southwestern  Europe  are  herded  together. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  here  in  Argentina  the 
Latins  of  Europe  are  blooming  again  and  economic 
opportunity  and  prosperity  have  awakened  within  them 
a  new  hope. 

This  first  impression  of  contrasts  between  the  west 
and  the  east  coast  is  amplified  as  one's  train  pulls  into 
the  beautiful  city  of  Buenos  Aires  with  its  1,700,000 
inhabitants,  revealing  a  type  of  life  as  cosmopolitan 


THE  ARGENTINES  231 

as  can  be  found  perhaps  in  any  city  of  the  world.  One 
is  first  possessed  with  the  realisation  that  he  is  again 
in  a  great  modern  capital  surrounded  with  all  the 
marks  of  material  prosperity  that  men  of  the  twentieth 
century  have  learned  to  utilise. 

One  is  whirled  through  the  streets  of  shining  mac- 
adam in  high-powered  motor  cars,  and  is  told  that 
there  are  in  the  city  more  than  4,000  privately  owned 
automobiles  with  2,000  motor  carriages  for  hire. 
Buenos  Aires  breaks  upon  one,  whose  eyes  have  been 
accustomed  to  a  long  day's  ride  of  level  plain,  as  a 
kind  of  dream  city,  with  its  great  plazas,  immense 
houses  and  public  buildings  resembling  so  closely,  with 
their  elaborately  ornamented  fagades,  Paris  or  Berlin 
that  one  needs  almost  to  rub  his  eyes  to  make  sure 
that  he  is  not  upon  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
This  greatest  city  of  South  America  has  been  called 
"A  plaster  imitation  of  Paris,"  but  if  one  can  judge 
from  the  first  impression  of  bustling  commercial  activ- 
ity, and  the  large  reconstruction  projects  which  are 
now  undei  way,  to  make  the  city  more  capable  for 
the  ever-growing  trade,  this  city  of  the  plains  is  some- 
thing quite  other  and  different  than  the  Parisian 
capital. 

To  be  sure,  when  one  walks  down  the  broad  Avenida 
de  Mayo,  which  is  said  to  resemble  closely  a  street 
of  Paris,  and  especially  when  at  night  the  sidewalks 
are  filled  before  the  large  cafes  and  restaurants  with 
small  tables  around  which  sit  the  Argentines,  one  can 
readily  think  he  is  on  the  Boulevard  des  Italiens. 

But  if  on  the  other  hand  one  could  arrive  in  Buenos 
Aires,  as  did  the  writer,  during  the  progress  of  the 


232     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

big  cattle  show,  when  the  hotels  were  filled  with  land 
owners  and  farmers  from  the  big  "estancias,"  he  would 
secure  an  impression  quite  different  than  that  to  be 
realised  in  Paris.  He  would  feel  a  more  virile,  agri- 
cultural strain  running  through  the  activity  of  this 
whole  city.  He  would  sense  a  patriotism  rising  from 
the  land,  for  this  country  is  an  agricultural  country 
first  of  all,  and  in  this  industry  and  about  it  the  patri- 
otic and  national  pride  of  the  people  centre. 

To  be  sure,  the  great  land  owners  come  to  Buenos 
Aires  and  spend  their  money  upon  the  glittering  boule- 
vards, and  this  makes  the  city  an  abnormal  one  and 
in  a  sense  a  false  guide  to  the  characteristics  of  the 
people  and  the  country.  Argentina,  however,  is  slowly 
but  surely  gathering  to  herself  out  of  the  polyglot 
nations  of  Europe  which  compose  her,  a  spirit  and 
individuality  of  her  own,  as  free  and  unique  as  is  the 
air  of  her  boundless  prairies.  At  present  she  resem- 
bles more  truly  the  old  world  than  does  the  United 
States,  which  has  had  so  much  longer  time  to  develop 
a  modern  particular  civilisation  all  her  own;  yet  you 
can  hardly  insult  an  Argentine  more  readily  than  to 
say  that  Buenos  Aires  is  merely  a  copy  or  tinselled  imi- 
tation of  a  European  capital.  He  sees  in  it  his  own 
expression,  and  although  he  will  tell  you  that  to  know 
the  country  correctly  the  North  American  must  read 
the  history  of  the  United  States  fifty  years  ago,  he  is 
nevertheless  deeply  confident  that  Argentina  has  a  fu- 
ture quite  different  from  either  the  United  States  or  a 
European  nation,  or,  in  fact,  any  other  South  American 
state.  One  imagines  that  the  longer  one  remains  in 
the   country  the  more  surely  he  will  be   inclined  to 


ALVAER  AVENUE  IN  BUENOS  AIRES.      A  SUPERB   RESIDENCE  STREET 


THE  ARGENTINES  233 

agree  with  the  inhabitant  of  this  great  land,  where  are 
being  gathered  forces  and  population,  in  an  agricultural 
area  nearly  half  as  big  as  the  United  States,  possessing 
resources  in  many  senses  more  uniform  and  prolific 
than  are  to  be  found  in  any  other  one  commonwealth 
on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Another  contrast  which  strikes  immediately  the  ob- 
server coming  to  Argentina  from  the  west  coast,  is 
that  of  the  absence  of  a  large  number  of  churches  of 
the  mediaeval  type.  One  will  be  told  both  in  Peru  and 
Chile  by  the  adherents  of  the  prevailing  Roman  Cath- 
olic faith  of  that  section  that  Argentina  is  rapidly 
becoming  agnostic,  and  that  she  has  become  dazzled  by 
the  blaze  of  her  material  prosperity. 

In  a  sense  this  impression  would  seem  to  be  borne 
out  by  one's  early  investigation  and  conversation  with 
the  inhabitants.  To  be  sure,  the  government  is  still 
connected  with  the  Roman  Catholic  church  to  the  ex- 
tent that  it  appropriates  money  each  year  for  the  na- 
tional religion.  The  families  of  wealth  and  distinc- 
tion here  also,  as  on  the  west  coast,  are  quite  closely 
allied  with  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  But  a  great 
difference  is  seen  in  the  character  of  that  alliance.  It 
seems  to  be  more  a  matter  of  politics,  of  fashion,  and 
lacking  deep  roots  in  the  religious  and  ecclesiastical 
nature  of  the  people.  The  women  also  are  very  much 
less  often  seen  in  the  churches,  and  the  poorer  classes 
do  not  seem  to  be  interested  in  religion  to  any  great 
extent.  As  far  as  the  educated  men  and  women  are 
concerned,  indifferentism,  if  not  in  many  cases  agnosti- 
cism, seems  to  be  the  ruling  characteristic. 

Buenos  Aires  impresses  the  newcomer  with  its  heavy- 


234      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

laden  and  sudden  materiality.  It  is  like  a  child  who 
has  received  a  lap  full  of  bon  bons,  or  a  shop  full  of 
toys,  to  which  it  has  been  unaccustomed,  and  has  not 
yet  learned  to  use  altogether  wisely.  Its  avenues  and 
main  streets  are  simply  clogged  with  these  evidences 
of  new  riches, — wonderful  shops  filled  with  the  most 
costly  manufactured  products  from  every  land;  win- 
dows ablaze  with  jewels  always  somewhat  larger  and 
more  costly  than  one  would  expect  to  see  displayed. 
Its  clubs  are  marble  palaces,  filled  with  paintings  and 
statuary  and  ornate  decoration  far  beyond  what  even 
necessity  or  good  taste  would  demand.  One  finds  it 
hard  to  distinguish  what  the  Argentine  would  call  an 
ordinary  dwelling  from  a  public  building,  so  great 
is  the  penchant  for  magnificence  and  display,  which  is 
easily  carried  out  in  modelled  stucco.  It  is  the  land 
of  the  high  cost  of  living  as  well  as  the  high  cost  of 
everything.  It  would  seem  to  be  one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult places  in  the  world  for  any  one  to  live  with  simple 
tastes,  and  still  with  respectability.  Things  are  rankly 
external.  All  seems  to  be  for  show.  A  gentleman  who 
advised  a  visit  to  a  state  building  said,  "Be  sure  to 
drive  up  to  the  building  in  a  motor  car.  It  will  make 
a  great  difference  in  the  attention  which  the  officials 
will  show  you." 

The  great  annual  stock  show  at  Buenos  Aires  is  a 
national  event,  and  people  of  all  classes  and  grades  of 
society  are  in  attendance.  Everything  about  the  fair 
is  of  intense  interest,  and  there  is  a  knowledge  dis- 
played regarding  the  many  kinds  of  modern  machinery 
and  a  fascination  about  the  stock  yards  where  the 
blooded  cattle,   sheep  and  horses  are   on  exhibition, 


THE  ARGENTINES  235 

that  is  unknown  even  in  the  United  States,  which  com- 
petes in  land  values  and  stock  farms  with  this  republic. 

This  year,  three  expert  stock  judges  from  North 
America  are  present  at  the  invitation  of  the  Argentines, 
and  the  daily  press  speaks  in  the  most  complimentary 
terms  of  the  decisions  made  by  this  committee.  In  re- 
gard to  their  cattle  these  people  are  as  extravagant 
with  their  wealth  as  in  other  ways.  No  expense  is 
spared  to  .import  the  best  breeds-  from  Europe  and 
any  part  of  the  earth,  and  a  prize-  bull  was  sold  this 
year  for  $20,000. 

One  cannot  but  think  that  it  would  be  good  for  the 
country  if  more  attention  was  given  to  the  distribu- 
tion of  lands  and  the  welfare  of  the  colonists,  and 
less  to  the  fancy  blooded  stock  which,  like  the  rich 
buildings  in  Buenos  Aires,  are  subjects  for  public  pride 
more  than  for  utility.  However,  the  glory  of  this 
great  yearly  exposition,  where  Argentine  society  ap- 
pears alongside  of  Argentine  labour,  helps  to  keep  the 
minds  of  the  people  riveted  upon  the  fact  that  the 
republic,  more  perhaps  than  any  other  large  state,  is 
almost  utterly  dependent  upon  the  land  and  its  prod- 
ucts for  existence  and  growth. 

In  few  countries  have  there  been  such  rapid  advances 
in  the  prices  of  land.  In  the  year  1885  it  was  pos- 
sible to  purchase  land  in  the  city  of  Buenos  Aires  for 
75  cents  a  yard;  now  it  costs  $1000  a  yard,  and  the 
market  quotations  are  still  showing  rising  prices. 
Twelve  or  15  years  ago  a  suburban  lot,  60  by  20  yards, 
could  be  purchased  here  for  $25;  at  present  the  pur- 
chaser would  find  it  necessary  to  pay  at  least  $750  for 
the  same  property.    Good  farm  land  brings  $500,000 


236      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

a  square  league,  and  it  is  the  possession  of  these  lands 
in  large  quantities  that  makes  it  possible  for  the  mil- 
lionaire Argentines  to  whirl  down  the  Avenida  de 
Mayo  in  their  $10,000  automobiles  and  spend  the  long 
vacations  in  Europe,  making  their  Capital  city  the  last 
word  in  the  display  of  wealth  of  luxury. 

Even  New  York  would  be  amazed  at  the  prodigal 
use  of  money  in  Buenos  Aires.  A  gentleman  was  show- 
ing a  visitor  about  a  public  building  recently,  and,  open- 
ing the  door  into  a  servant's  bathroom,  drew  his  at- 
tention to  the  carved  panels  and  ceiling,  the  wood  be- 
ing imported  for  the  purpose  with  the  other  choice 
wood  with  which  the  building  was  decorated.  One  is 
told  that  the  officers,  during  the  wars  of  Argentina 
with  her  neighbours  in  former  years,  were  paid  their 
salaries  in  part  at  least  in  land;  with  the  later  advent 
of  railways  and  an  absence  of  revolutions  and  wars, 
the  prices  of  these  tracts  have  soared  to  fabulous 
amounts  and  these  men  are  now  millionaires.  It  is  said 
that  in  proportion  to  its  size  this  South  American  re- 
public has  more  millionaires  than  the  United  States — 
it  is  a  country  of  land-fortunes. 

In  this  immense  grain-  and  cattle-producing  country 
of  776,000,000  acres,  80,000,000  acres  are  suitable 
for  wheat  raising.  Yet  only  about  one-fourth  of  the 
land  is  now  under  cultivation,  and  there  are  only  six 
persons  to  the  square  mile.  Of  this  population  of 
7,000,000,  about  three-fourths  are  Argentines,  or  peo- 
ple born  in  the  country.  There  are  half  a  million 
Italians,  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  French,  25,000  Brit- 
ishers, and  a  melting  pot  of  almost 'every  nation  under 
the  sun  in  smaller  numbers. 


THE  ARGENTINES  237 

It  is  stated  that  each  person  in  Argentina  not  only 
produces  food  sufficient  for  his  own  needs,  but  sends 
each  year  $40  worth  of  food  to  other  countries. 
Great  Britain  has  been  depending  on  this  republic  for 
nearly  one-fourth  of  its  food  products,  which  is  rea- 
son sufficient  for  the  intense  interest  the  Britisher  is 
taking  at  present  in  the  intricate  and  puzzling  matters 
of  foreign  trade. 

In  Argentina,  furthermore,  the  question  of  land  is 
always  connected  with  the  subject  of  labour,  and  labour 
in  turn  usually  calls  up  immigration  matters,  than 
which  few  subjects  are  of  more  vital  moment  to  this 
republic.  Like  the  United  States,  Argentina  has  been 
receiving  in  recent  years  a  flood  of  immigrants  from 
Europe,  and  like  the  United  States,  she  also  has  not 
found  the  process  of  assimilation  easy  or  her  immigra- 
tion-agrarian system  a  model  of  perfection. 

One  of  the  difficulties  in  this  southern  republic  has 
been  the  double  stream  of  immigration.  While  there 
has  been  an  increase  in  recent  years  previous  to  the 
European  war  of  approximately  250,000  inhabitants 
through  the  stream  of  immigration,  this  does  not  tell 
the  whole  story.  Many  thousands  more  have  come  to 
this  land  of  opportunity,  but  for  various  reasons  have 
made  but  a  temporary  sojourn  here,  and,  returning  to 
Europe,  have  carried  away  a  vast  resource  of  the  land 
both  in  money  and  men. 

Between  the  years  1905  and  1907,  for  instance, 
there  was  an  immigration  into  Argentina  from  Europe 
and  Montevideo  of  781,796,  and  in  the  same  period 
324,687  persons  left  the  country  for  their  former 
homes,  leaving  only  a  total  of  457,108  in  three  years. 


238      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

According  to  the  estimates  of  the  Department  of  Im- 
migration, each  of  these  emigrants  from  the  republic 
took  with  him  out  of  the  country  on  the  average  $150. 
During  these  three  years  the  republic  lost  in  this  way 
$50,000,000.  This  reveals  grave  disorder  somewhere 
in  the  assimilative  faculty  of  the  nation,  and  it  has 
aroused  the  people  to  renewed  attention  to  their  laws 
for  immigrants.  The  reasons  which  appear  to  explain 
this  loss  involve  a  faulty  distribution  of  soil,  poor  ad- 
ministration of  justice  as  regards  the  new  colonists, 
and  especially  the  difficulties  immigrants  have  experi- 
enced in  securing  individual  and  desirable  holdings  that 
would  attach  them  to  their  land  and  enable  them  to 
build  homes  in  their  adopted  country.  The  operations 
connected  with  the  purchase  of  land  have  been  sub- 
jected to  long  and  wearisome  formalities  which  have 
exhausted  both  the  purse  and  the  patience  of  newcom- 
ers. Unwise  laws  promulgated  formerly  have  enabled 
the  rich  absentee  landlords  to  hold  enormous  tracts 
of  property,  and  the  immigrant  has  found  it  difficult 
to  get  land  that  seemed  to  him  most  desirable.  To- 
day, therefore,  Argentina  faces  the  serious  problem 
of  a  division  @f  lands  or  a  continuance  of  temporary 
immigration. 

Here  is  a  country  capable  of  supporting  100,000,000 
people  instead  of  the  present  7,000,000  with  vast  pub- 
lic lands  still  undistributed.  In  a  republic  where  the 
colonisation  problem  is  the  immigration  problem,  this 
matter  is  a  momentous  one.  Argentina  is  a  paradise 
for  immigrants  with  its  softness  of  climate,  richness 
of  soil,  its  extent  of  arable  territory,  inland  water- 
ways, its  easy  commercial  access  to  markets  and  pote? 


THE  ARGENTINES  239 

tial  wealth.  It  is  still,  outside  of  its  abnormal  capital 
with  its  trail  of  overdone  luxury  and  materiality,  a 
desert-nation.  One  rides  for  hundreds  of  miles  over 
the  level  pampas  in  almost  primeval  isolation  where 
the  broad  prairies  are  as  bare  of  signs  of  civilisation 
as  Buenos  Aires  is  redolent  with  the  atmosphere  of 
gorgeous  modernity.  Santa  Cruz,  for  example,  with  its 
58,590  square  miles  of  land,  capable  of  supporting  a 
vast  industrial  and  maritime  population,  contains 
scarcely  more  than  2000  persons.  The  call  of  the  land 
in  this  remarkable  republic  is  pathetic. 

That  the  country  is  beginning  to  awake  to  its  delin- 
quency and  possibility  is  revealed  in  the  following 
statement  taken  from  the  "Notes  on  the  Land  Laws" 
of  M.  Eleodore  Lobos,  who,  speaking  of  the  need  of 
colonisation  by  immigration,  says: 

"Our  failure  is  an  incontestable  fact  and  must  be  at- 
tributed not  only  to  economic,  administrative  and 
political  conditions,  but  also  to  the  freedom  with 
which  the  soil  has  been  divided  into  lots  of  enormous 
area,  and  the  obstacles  opposed  to  the  easy  and  secure 
acquisition  of  small  properties. 

"In  other  terms,"  he  continued,  "our  politicians  have 
affected  the  very  reverse  of  a  rational  colonisation,  and 
have  established  a  system  of  large  properties  instead 
of  subdividing  the  land  between  the  colonists  accord- 
ing to  their  productive  capacities." 

Argentina  in  her  land  troubles  is  reaping  the  sowing 
of  a  bad  start,  and  like  many  another  South  American 
republic,  she  finds  it  difficult  to  dissolve  the  hard  metal 
of  the  early  racial  consciousness  dug  in  the  old  Spanish 
world,  in  her  new  modern  melting  pot.    Traditions  and 


240      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

standards  closed  down  upon  wrong  ideals  here  in  these 
lands  where  the  founders  came  first  to  exploit  and 
not  to  colonise. 

The  new  type  of  conqueror  now  invading  Argentina 
is  in  many  cases  from  the  same  lands  whence  came 
the  early  adventurers,  but  he  comes  to-day  with  differ- 
ent motives.  He  wants  to  get  his  gold  by  industry 
and  not  by  theft.  He  seeks  a  land  of  opportunity 
for  work  and  not  for  play.  He  seeks  the  simple  and 
unostentatious  life  of  the  country,  close  to  the  land. 
Argentina's  future  land  of  promise  lies  not  in  the  blaz- 
ing lights  of  her  cosmopolitan  Avenida  de  Mayo,  but 
in  the  bone  and  sinew  of  these  latest  conquerors  who 
ask  only  the  worker's  meed. 

Although  Argentina  is  a '  new  country,  there  are 
already  certain  bodies  which  have  come  to  assume 
the  air  of  fixed  institutions.  They  are  like  the  Statue 
of  Liberty,  or  the  Taj  Mahal,  or  London  Tower — 
things  that  act  as  departure  places  for  travellers,  and 
the  person  who  visits  the  countries  containing  these 
famous  guide-posts  and  cannot  afterwards  speak  know- 
ingly concerning  them,  is  at  once  branded  as  an  in- 
expert traveller. 

In  Argentina  there  are  several  such  notable  insti- 
tutions. There  is  the  Colon  Theatre,  where  the  wealth 
of  the  metropolis  disports  itself  and  pays  huge  prices 
to  attract  the  most  highly  prized  artists  of  song  and 
the  art  histrionic.  The  far-famed  Jockey  Club  of 
Buenos  Aires — that  super-gorgeous  meeting  place  of 
the  new-rich  men,  where  the  owners  of  great  "estancias" 
pay  thousands  of  dollars  to  enter,  as  members — must  be 
on  the  visitor's  programme.     Another  really  national 


THE  ARGENTINES  241 

institution  is  the  newspaper,  La  Prensa,  of  which  every 
Argentine  is  quite  justly  proud,  one  of  the  newspapers 
of  South  America,  nearly  a  half  century  old,  and  com- 
bining journalism  with  a  sort  of  artistic  and  philan- 
thropic paternalism. 

To'be  sure  La  Prensa  cannot  claim  precedence  in 
age  among  the  journals  of  the  republics  south  of 
Panama.  The  Standard,  an  English  newspaper  of 
Buenos  Aires,  claims  a  considerable  priority  as  far 
as  age  is  concerned,  while  the  devoted  admirers  of 
El  Mecurio  in  Chile  will  tell  you  that  with  the  exception 
possibly  of  a  small  Brazilian  sheet,  their  paper  was  the 
first  one  organised  among  these  republics. 

La  Prensa,  furthermore,  is  by  no  means  the  only 
journal  in  Argentina.  The  country  boasts  of  at  least 
189  daily  newspapers  and  periodicals  printed  in  Buenos 
Aires  alone,  157  being  in  Spanish,  14  in  Italian,  2  in 
French,  8  in  German  and  6  in  English.  Many  of  the 
discerning  will  inform  one  that  La  Nacion,  the  news- 
paper of  the  Argentine  Capital — devoting  itself  par- 
ticularly to  authentic  political  news — is  not  only  more 
dignified  but  also  more  reliable;  while  the  clever 
El  Diario,  La  Razon,  and  half  a  dozen  other  papers 
that  the  newsboys  shriek  into  your  ears  on  the  tram 
cars  and  through  the  restaurants,  are  sheets  worthy  of 
any  of  our  modern  cities. 

The  news-stands  of  the  cities  and  towns  in  this  pro- 
gressive land  are  also  filled  with  many  illustrated  jour- 
nals, a  number  of  these  having  a  corresponding  Eng- 
lish edition  published  in  the  United  States.  One  does 
not  live  long  in  this,  part  of  the  world  without  discov- 
ering that  the  Latin  American  is  as  facile  with  his  pen 


242      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

as  with  his  vocal  organs,  and  in  the  amount  of  literary 
and  journalistic  output  of  the  present  day  Argentina 
is  quite  amazing.  It  must  be  added  also  that  to  the 
American  journalist  much  of  the  South  American 
journalism  would  seem  to  be  superfluous,  so  indirect 
and  generous  are  the  writers  in  presenting  their  facts 
and  opinions.  If  it  is  true  that  there  are  at  least  half 
a  dozen  ways  for  the  Spanish  American  to  say  the 
same  thing,  it  is  equally  patent  that  there  are  quite  as 
many  methods  of  writing  the  same  thing,  and  the  aver- 
age writer  seems  inclined  to  use  them  all. 

La  Prensa,  however,  easily  holds  the  throne  of  pres- 
tige and  general  popularity  among  the  newspapers,  if 
the  circulation  lists  and  elaborate  office  equipment  are 
signs  of  press  royalty. 

This  journal  occupies  a  building  which  is  purported 
to  cost,  with  its  land  and  equipment,  more  than  five  mil- 
lion dollars,  and  the  ''newspaper  office"  would  impress 
the  American  as  a  cross  between  a  State  Capitol,  a  Car- 
negie Library,  a  Metropolitan  Museum  and  the  Bos- 
ton Conservatory  of  Music,  This  is  the  chief  first 
impression  of  the  visitor  who  learns  later  that  inci- 
dentally in  this  luxurious,  eleemosynary  atmosphere  is 
published  a  newspaper  in  Spanish,  twenty-three  pages 
in  extent,  with  two  daily  editions,  and  boasting  of  a 
certified  circulation  of  220,000  copies  each  day  of  the 
year. 

Here  is  a  type  of  dignified  journalism  par  excellence. 
There  are  no  glaring  bill-boards,  no  coloured  supple- 
ments, no  letters  a  foot  high  on  the  first  page  to  delude 
the  trusting  public  for  the  Benefit  of  the  newsboys.  In- 
stead there  is  a  small  electrically  framed  newsboard 


THE  ARGENTINES  243 

at  night,  not  more  than  two  feet  square,  speaking  in 
authoritative  Castilian  of  such  momentous  facts  as, 
for  example,  that  Roumania  and  Italy  have  declared 
war  on  Germany. 

The  offices  of  this  paper  are  all  upon  the  de  luxe 
plan.  An  average  reporter  in  the  "States"  who  found 
himself  installed  in  one  of  these  beautifully  furnished 
rooms,  equipped  with  mahogany  desks  and  with  floors 
laid  in  marble  mosaic,  velvet  curtains  at  the  windows 
and  cherubs  flying  over  him  in  the  frescoed  ceilings, 
would  be  inclined  to  lose  his  American  "punch."  He 
would  quite  likely  feel  more  like  taking  off  his  hat  and 
speaking  in  a  whisper,  as  one  suddenly  translated  into 
the  midst  of  royal  surroundings.  La  Prensa,  however, 
is  really  not  a  cathedral  nor  a  throne  room,  although 
it  has  marble  enough  in  it  to  make  for  a  king  a  palace. 
It  is,  for  a  fact,  a  marvellous  newspaper  building, 
owned  by  a  single  Argentine  family  whose  name  is 
Paz,  with  real  Hoe  presses  and  foundry,  hidden  away 
in  the  basement,  and  twenty-one  linotype  machines  that 
make  all  the  noise  expected  of  such  instruments  in 
working  hours. 

We  had  the  privilege  of  an  introduction  to  one  of 
the  members  of  this  family,  renowned  in  Argentine 
journalism,  a  gentleman  of  rare  manners  and  travelled 
culture,  who  gave  us  the  impression  that  the  chief  busi- 
ness of  his  life  was  to  be  of  service  to  such  investi- 
gating visitors  as  ourselves.  We  discovered  later  that 
this  gentleman  was  by  no  means  an  idle  rich  man,  but 
a  very  assiduous  newspaper  expert  who  knew  how  to 
wield  the  blue  pencil  quite  as  dexterously  as  the  aver- 
age city  editor  in  the  United  States.     From  his  cour- 


244      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tesy  and  equanimity  you  would  scarcely  have  dreamed 
that  the  days  held  aught  for  him  other  than  the  charm- 
ing leisurely  conversation  of  a  man  at  a  social  club. 
Such  is  the  subtle  mystery  of  Spanish  etiquette. 

A  tour  through  this  ingeniously  arranged  building, 
built  on  the  plan  of  the  old  Spanish  house  with  a  beau- 
tiful open  patio  in  the  centre,  is  quite  an  unforgettable 
experience.  One  is  shown  through  the  large  and  well- 
equipped  free  library,  where  enquiring  students  may 
read  and  write.  A  music  school  is  also  included  where 
220  pupils  get  musical  education  gratis.  There  is  a 
Concert  Hall,  with  Gobelin  tapestry  on  the  walls,  and 
paintings  of  renowned  artists  upon  the  ceiling;  here 
the  official  staff  and  invited  guests  sit  in  gilt  chairs, 
gorgeously  upholstered  in  rose-coloured  satin,  to  hear 
the  operatic  stars  sing  portions  of  their  librettos  in 
advance,  to  show  La  Prensa  that  they  are  worthy  of 
that  institution's  support  and  vivas.  To  this  rostrum 
also  come  distinguished  lecturers  who,  as  they  look 
down  upon  the  faultlessly  dressed  men  and  women  of 
Argentina,  are  united  in  their  verdict  that  there  are 
few,  if  any,  more  luxuriously  appointed  private  theatres 
in  existence. 

The  visitor  is  led  from  the  fourth  floor  of  the  build- 
ing by  a  spiral  staircase  to  the  roof,  where  he  looks 
off  over  this  freshly-made  metropolis,  just  learning 
the  skyscraper  habit,  and  is  then  plunged  down  one 
of  the  four  electric  elevators  to  inspect  the  private 
power  plant,  and  the  newspaper  machinery,  much  of 
which  is  made  in  the  United  States.  It  takes  liter- 
ally hours  to  thoroughly  inspect  the  many  features 
of  this  ingenious  building,   and  in  every  room   one 


THE  ARGENTINES  245 

receives  the  same  impression,  namely,  the  lavish 
prodigality  of  wealth  to  make  these  offices  the  apex 
of  luxurious  equipment.  From  its  mosaic  floors,  its 
walls  panelled  with  rare  carved  woods,  its  frescoed 
ceilings,  its  embroidered  velvet  draperies,  its  ornate 
chandeliers  (some  of  elaborately  wrought  bronze  and 
others  of  crystal),  its  statuary  and  paintings,  one  dis* 
covers  a  characteristic  of  the  Argentine — ostentatious 
display. 

Through  it  all,  however,  there  is  a  very  real  line 
of  utility.  In  the  modern  telegraph  and  wireless  op- 
erating rooms,  in  the  department  of  photography,  and 
in  the  up-to-date  grill  room  for  the  reporters,  one  reads 
the  indication  of  modernity.  Although  the  offices  of 
the  chief  editors  resemble  more  nearly  a  string  of 
apartments  in  a  President's  palace,  the  air  of  effi- 
ciency is  not  absent,  and  when  the  accountant  tells 
the  visitor  that  La  Prensa  pays  annually  for  customs 
duties,  government  taxes,  municipal  contributions,  and 
for  paper,  ink  and  other  supplies  an  average  of  $240,- 
000  gold,  he  realises  that  this  is  a  business  as  well  as 
an  art  institution.  One  is  also  told  that  the  telegraph 
service  costs  La  Prensa  $20,000  each  month,  and  that 
the  paper  pays  its  correspondents  and  agents  $33,000 
yearly.  Every  month  there  are  80,000  small  adver- 
tisements published,  and  the  advertising  manager,  who 
has  for  many  years  been  at  the  head  of  this  depart- 
ment, is  a  fitting  example  of  the  practicable  possi- 
bilities wrapt  up  in  the  romantic  Latin  American. 

In  the  midst  of  its  many  practical  newspaper  ac- 
tivities, La  Prensa  finds  time  to  be  of  real  service  to 
the  public  in  many  unique  ways.     The  paper  conducts 


\ 

246     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

a  law  department,  where  three  lawyers  serve  the  pub- 
lic free  of  charge,  daily;  there  is  also  a  medical  sec- 
tion, where  four  physicians  deal  out  free  medical  ad- 
vice to  all  who  apply.  There  are  also  conference 
rooms,  richly  appointed,  where  any  group  of  persons 
may  hold  a  meeting  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night, 
when  it  suits  them  to  leave  their  street  discussions 
and  retire  to  the  comfortable  environment  of  a  hall 
provided  for  such  purposes. 

A  meteorological  observatory,  where  weather  re- 
ports are  made,  has  not  been  forgotten,  while  there  are 
departments  for  distinguished  visitors  who  are  enter- 
tained by  La  Prensa  without  money  and  without  price. 
Prizes  are  given  by  the  newspaper  for  altruistic  acts 
consisting  of  artistic  gold  medals  and  a  subscription  to 
La  Prensa  for  a  stated  period  or  for  life.  To  stimu- 
late education,  La  Prensa  offers  a  permanent  prize  of 
$1,500,  which  is  annually  awarded  to  the  person  who 
has  taught  the  greatest  number  of  illiterate  people  to 
read  the  national  language  within  the  boundaries  of 
the  Republic,  during  the  preceding  year.  There  are 
also  literary  contests  held,  money  prizes  being  given 
for  the  best  articles  and  stories  written,  and  an  in- 
formation bureau  is  carried  on  for  the  benefit  of  the 
public.  The  interest  in  Argentine  land  is  not  omitted 
by  La  Prensa,  in  whose  offices  there  is  found  an  indus- 
trial and  agricultural  bureau;  this  department  of  free 
service  has  contributed  considerable  benefit  both  to  the 
agriculturist  and  also  to  the  business  community. 

One  of  the  most  striking  advertisements  of  La 
Prensa,  which  is  not  without  its  public  utility,  consists 
in  the  method  of  conveying  news   of  extraordinary 


THE  ARGENTINES  247 

events  through  a  powerful  syren  whistle  which  can  be 
heard  to  the  utmost  limits  of  the  city  and  suburbs. 
During  the  progress  of  the  European  war,  the  news 
is  conveyed  by  a  system  of  signals,  flags  by  day  and  elec- 
tric lights  on  the  top  of  the  edifice  by  night. 

From  every  point  of  inspection  one  is  certain  to  be 
impressed  with  this  unusual  exhibition  of  enterprise  in 
modern  journalism.  Its  cosmopolitan  presentation  of 
news,  its  virtually  unbiassed  attitude  in  relation  to  poli- 
tics, its  conservatism  and  dignity  in  conveying  the  news 
to  the  public,  and  in  its  unexampled  expenditure  of  at- 
tention to  the  welfare  of  the  nation,  La  Prensa  is  one 
of  the  most  worthy  examples  of  the  progressive  genius 
of  this  South  American  republic. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

BUENOS  AIRES,  THE  CITY  DE  LUXE 

It  looks  gold,  it  smells  of  gold,  .  .  .  Yea,  the  very  waves  as 
they  ripple  past  us,  sing  of  gold,  gold,  gold. 

Charles  Kingsley. 

THESE  words  of  Charles  Kingsley  were  not  in- 
tended to  be  used  in  connection  with  Buenos 
Aires,  but  they  came  to  our  mind  as  we  alighted 
from  the  Trans-Andean  train  one  recent  autumn  eve- 
ning and  were  whirled  to  the  hotel  through  the 
brilliant  streets  of  the  Argentine  capital.  For  sev- 
eral months  we  had  been  wandering  through  the 
ancient  mediaeval-like  towns  and  cities  of  the  western 
coast  of  South  America.  To  a  traveller  thus  inured  to 
scenes  where  modernity  struggles  painfully  with  dilapi- 
dation and  decay,  the  new  and  dazzling  Buenos  Aires, 
with  its  stretches  of  shining  macadam  along  Parisian- 
like boulevards,  its  regal  mansions  and  its  general  air 
of  twentieth  century  de  luxe,  is  like  a  gorgeous  electric- 
lighted  room  after  semi-darkness. 

Buenos  Aires  is,  indeed,  a  startling  city;  it  might  be 
called  "The  City  of  Amazement."  This  unanalysed 
wonder  of  the  traveller  is  likely  to  continue  for  sev- 
eral days,  as  he  is  piloted,  perhaps,  through  the  rich 
and  gorgeous  rooms  of  the  aristocratic  Jockey  Club, 

248 


BUENOS  AIRES,  THE  CITY  DE  LUXE 

the  income  of  which  organisation  amounts  to  millions 
of  dollars  a  year  by  reason  of  its  connection  with  one 
of  the  finest  race  tracks  of  the  world,  or,  should  he  be 
fortunate  enough,  as  he  sits  as  guest  in  the  drawing- 
room  of  an  "estancia"  prince.  One's  first  days  in  this 
city  of  the  River  Plate  are  a  kind  of  orgy  of  resplend- 
ent vision  as  he  passes  through  a  phantaismagoria 
of  varied  riches.  There  is  the  Colon  Theatre,  said  to 
be  more  expensive  and  beautiful  than  any  of  its  Eu- 
ropean rivals,  with  its  onyx  and  rose  and  gold.  Even 
the  ornate  marble  and  granite  cemetery,  where  Buenos 
Aires  buries  above  ground  its  dead,  speaks  of  a  land 
flowing  in  wealth. 

As  one  gets  away  from  his  early  sight-seeing  trip, 
he  is  almost  inclined  to  believe  that  this  magnificence, 
which  momentarily  warps  one's  judgment,  was  a  pre- 
conceived plan  on  the  part  of  these  progressive  and 
vigorous  folk  whose  first  ideal  seems  to  be  Progress — 
Progress  beneath  the  aegis  of  the  gods  of  gold.  It  is 
also  extremely  different  from  the  West  Coast  cities — 
so  extravagantly  costly — so  supergorgeous — so  Baby- 
lonian-like. One  is  not  surprised  that  a  certain  Eng- 
lish author  chose  as  the  title  of  his  book,  "The  Amaz- 
ing Argentina." 

This  element  of  marvel  seems  to  highly  please  the 
inhabitant.  They  like  to  see  the  traveller  amazed. 
Furthermore,  they  outdo  the  wonder  of  their  build, 
ings  in  the  narration  of  statistics  concerning  their  city, 
which  figures  are  hurled  from  all  sides  on  one's  un- 
suspecting head.  The  visitor  will  be  told  almost  in 
one  sweep  of  breath  that  Buenos  Aires,  the  Queen  of 
the  South  Atlantic,  has  a  population  of  1,700,000,  and 


250      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

is  not  only  the  largest  city  in  South  America,  but  the 
second  largest  Latin  city  in  the  world.  One  will  hear 
how  the  area  of  the  Argentine  metropolis  is  eighty- 
two  square  miles,  and  thus  larger  than  Paris,  Berlin, 
Hamburg  or  Vienna ;  that  it  is  one  of  the  most,  if  not 
the  most,  cosmopolitan  city  on  the  face  of  the  globe; 
and  that  its  subway,  the  most  luxurious  and  best  in 
existence,  carries  400,000,000  passengers  each  year. 
But  this  is  only  a  beginning  of  the  history  of  this  new 
town  whose  story  reads  like  a  tale  of  the  "One  Thou- 
sand and  One  Nights."  It  possesses,  as  you  learn,  500 
periodicals,  4,000  private  motor  cars,  one  of  the  big- 
gest banks  in  the  world,  the  most  luxurious  club- 
house, 97  of  the  most  modern  and  beautiful  parks, 
34  public  markets,  435  miles  of  car  tracks,  and 
withal  more  millionaires  according  to  population  than 
New  York  City  or  any  other  metropolis  that  one  might 
happen  to  suggest.  It  is  small  wonder  that  after  the 
first  few  days  in  the  Capital  city  of  the  great  cattle 
republic,  the  traveller  feels  that  some  one  has  been 
handling  Aladdin's  lamp,  and  his  first  inclination  is  to 
get  away  from  all  the  splendour  to  some  quiet  nook 
'in  order  to  get  his  perspective  and  reason  out  this 
mighty  piece  of  modernity. 

When  the  enthusiastic  and  loyal  Porteno  has  got 
these  facts  and  a  hundred  others  out  of  his  system,  he 
will  turn,  as  a  rule,  dramatically  towards  you  and  say, 
"Now,  what  do  you  think  of  our  city?"  He  likes  to 
see  you  gasp  for  adjectives  with  which  to  endeavour 
vainly  to  express  your  wonder  at  all  this  material  im- 
mensity. Then  he  leads  you  off  to  see  some  great  public 
buildings  with  marble  steps  and  mosaic  floors,  with 


BUENOS  AIRES,  THE  CITY  DE  LUXE    251 

statues,  bronzes  and  paintings,  of  which  he  tells  you  the 
price  but  does  not  give  you  time  to  admire  their  beauty; 
for  there .  are  other  things  even  more  remarkable  to 
see,  like  the  richly  appointed  shops  on  the  Calle  Flor- 
ida, and  the  more  richly  gowned  people  along  this 
promenade  where  all  the  world  goes  to  stare  at  each 
other  in  the  afternoon;  not  to  speak  of  the  newspaper 
magnate's  palace  on  the  Plaza  San  Martin,  which  you 
will  be  told  cost  more  than  the  American  White  House. 

After  a  week  or  so  of  this  paralysing  business,  if 
the  traveller  has  successfully  dodged  the  motor  cars 
and  vehicles  driven  at  breakneck  speed  by  the  Argen- 
tine Jehus,  and  escaped  with  life  and  limb  from  being 
run  down  by  street  cars  on  the  narrow  business  streets, 
where  the  trams  come  perilously  near  taking  the  side- 
walk, the  visitor  gets  a  bit  hardened  to  architectural 
magnificence  and  stunning  statistics  and  begins  to  try 
a  bit  of  visualisation  and  analysing  on  his  own  account. 

The  reaction  from  all  this  blaze  of  impression  be- 
comes so  sudden  and  intense  with  some  that  they  go  to 
the  extreme  of  saying  that  Buenos  Aires  is,  indeed, 
in  a  class  by  itself,  but  on  this  statement  they  do  not 
intend  to  be  especially  complimentary.  Some  will  utter 
the  conviction  that  this  new  city,  being  without  aris- 
tocracy of  birth,  has  proceeded  to  form  an  aristocracy 
of  extravagant  display  of  wealth,  that  it  is,  in  fact,  a 
city  of  frenzied  finance.  Others  have  called  it  a  city 
of  sham — stucco  houses  made  to  look  like  marble, 
ostentation  to  cover  a  poverty  of  ideas,  a  neurotic 
Orientalism  wearing  the  garb  of  culture  and  mediaeval 
chivalry  to  womankind,  or — speaking  of  the  Portenos 
as  children — playing  house  at  being  Paris,  but  affect- 


252      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ing  only  a  "plaster  imitation,"  lacking  the  spontaneous 
gaiety  and  ability  of  the  Parisian. 

But  such  extreme  and  harsh  detractors  would  secure 
a  very  small  audience  of  sympathisers  from  those 
who  have  stayed  long  enough  in  Buenos  Aires  to  out- 
live their  reactions.  The  foreigner  who  makes  a  tem- 
porary visit,  especially  if  he  does  not  understand  Span- 
ish, and  is  obliged  to  receive  his  information  in  a 
roundabout  way  through  interpreters,  or  sit  through 
theatres  or  public  gatherings  whose  significance  he  can 
only  guess,  is  quite  sure  to  come  away  with  a  feeling 
that  all  this  playing  up  of  externals  is  a  kind  of  in- 
genious method  of  showing  off.  He  must  remain 
longer  and  get  below  and  beyond  these  confessedly 
specious  introductions,  to  the  heart  and  soul  of  a  city 
which  has  sprung  up  almost  in  a  night  on  the  muddy 
flats  of  the  River  Plate,  literally  in  a  single  genera- 
tion. To  such  a  student  of  Buenos  Aires  there  will 
come  indubitably  a  consciousness  of  vast  values  both  in 
the  way  of  progress  and  of  individual  personality. 

The  people,  or  the  Portenos,  as  the  inhabitants  of 
Buenos  Aires  are  known  locally,  are  of  primal  interest 
to  the  student  of  modern  civilisation.  Who  are  the 
people  of  Buenos  Aires?  Where  did  they  come  from? 
Why  are  they  what  they  are? 

Unless  we  begin  in  some  such  fashion  the  South 
American  is  an  impregnable  puzzle  to  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
and  anything  like  mutual  understanding  will  be  quite 
impossible. 

He  who  visits  Buenos  Aires  may  have  already 
learned  that  Argentina  was  discovered  in  1516  by  the 
Spanish  navigator,  Juan  de  Solis,  who,  in  search  of 


BUENOS  AIRES,  THE  CITY  DE  LUXE    253 

a  passage  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  was  the  first  European 
to  sail  up  the  Rio  de  la  Plata.  He  has  doubtlessly 
learned  already  that  in  1536  de  Mendoza  founded  the 
city  "Santa  Maria  de  Buenos  Aires,"  and  that  the 
Viceroyalty  of  La  Plata,  including  Argentine,  Bolivia, 
Paraguay  and  Uruguay  of  to-day,  was  broken  in  18 10 
by  the  people  of  Buenos  Aires,  who  declared  their  in- 
dependence under  the  leadership  of  the  famous  names 
of  General  San  Martin,  General  Belgrano,  and  Ad- 
miral Brown;  and  that  in  i860  the  country  adopted  the 
name  by  which  it  is  now  known,  "La  Nacion  Argen- 
tina." 

It  would  be  natural,  therefore,  to  suppose  that  Bue- 
nos Aires,  being  of  Spanish  origin,  would  be  identical 
in  character  and  customs  with  other  large  South  Amer- 
ican cities,  like  Santiago  or  Lima.  This  supposition 
19  soon  frustrated  as  one  learns  that  one-fifth  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Buenos  Aires  are  Italian  and  at  least 
half  the  population  are  foreign  born,  and  that  while 
according  to  very  recent  calculation  it  is  reported  that 
Chile  has  one  per  cent  of  foreign  population,  the  re- 
public of  which  Buenos  Aires  is  the  capital  possesses 
85  per  cent  of  inhabitants  who  either  came  themselves 
from  alien  lands,  or  whose  immediate  ancestry  was 
foreign.  It  will  also  be  found  that  some  of  the  largest 
enterprises  of  the  Capital  city  are  in  the  hands  of 
British,  Germans  and  Americans.  Great  Britain  alone 
has  invested  $1,250,000,000  in  Argentina  and  has  put 
700,000,000  of  these  dollars  in  railroads,  which  she 
controls  largely  by  her  representatives  linked  with  their 
offices  in  London. 

It  is  also  an  illuminating  discovery  that  the  people 


254     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

who  dwell  in  these  wonderfully  rich  homes  on  the 
Avenida  General  Alvear  (and  there  are  few  cities 
anywhere  in  the  world  where  the  motive  of  beauty  is 
more  prominent  in  palatial  and  luxurious  houses)  are 
the  old  Argentine  families  who  own  estancias.  These 
people  have  made  their  money,  not  through  industrial 
enterprise,  as  is  the  case  so  often  in  the  United  States, 
but  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  a  generation  ago  they 
were  enabled  by  what  would  seem  to  be  a  short-sighted 
government  to  buy  land  at  three  cents  an  acre,  and 
have  since  seen  their  rich  farms  increase  in  value  a 
thousandfold  and  more. 

Argentina  has  not  been  favoured  with  the  "home- 
stead" system.  Pedro  Luro,  a  Basque  immigrant,  will 
be  pointed  out  as  an  example  of  what  has  happened. 
He  received  a  hundred  square  leagues,  or  625,000 
acres  of  good  soil,  when  the  government  was  glad  to 
dispose  of  it  at  three  and  one-half  cents  an  acre.  He 
secured  fifty  Basque  families  to  assist  him  with  his 
grant,  and  several  millionaires  resulted;  the  land  is 
valued  to-day  at  five  hundred  times  what  Luro  paid 
for  it.  This  immigrant,  who  landed  at  seventeen  years 
of  age  in  the  year  1837  at  Buenos  Aires,  having  only 
a  few  shillings  in  his  pocket,  died  a  short  time  ago 
owning  a  million  acres  of  land  in  addition  to  half  a 
million  sheep  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  cattle. 

With  this  advantage  in  land,  it  was  comparatively 
easy  for  these  Argentine  pioneers  to  sit  in  their  homes 
and  see  railroads  and  harbour  improvements  arrive 
under  the  impulse  of  foreign  capital;  watch  the  floods 
of  immigration,  adding  to  the  country's  importance  in 
agriculture  as  well  as  in  cattle,  exchanging  meanwhile 


BUENOS  AIRES,  THE  CITY  DE  LUXE     255 

their  primitive  tools  for  modern  steam-driven  farm 
machinery,  assuring  the  material  prosperity  of  them- 
selves and  their  posterity  for  generations  to  come.  In 
a  country  where  political  influence  and  military  record 
were  so  closely  allied  to  the  obtaining  of  land  at  trifling 
cost,  one  can  readily  see  how  the  pernicious  "latifun- 
dia"  system  fastened  itself  upon  the  republic.  Al- 
though the  mistakes  of  these  early  years  have  since 
been  recognised  and  partially  rectified,  the  results  are 
still  manifest  in  the  abnormalities  of  this  Buenos  Aires 
de  luxe,  which  has  been  significantly  styled  "a  pre- 
tentious Capital  in  a  pastoral  republic." 

One  is  still  amazed  to  find  that  these  great  rural 
and  almost  feudal  aristocrats  of  land  who  spend  their 
wealth  in  the  capitals  of  Europe  when  they  are  not  liv- 
ing in  their  expensive  Buenos  Aires  homes,  still  hold 
their  lands  comparatively  free  from  taxes,  while  the 
poor  Italian  pushcart  man,  and  the  later  immigrant 
who  owns  but  fifty  acres,  must  pay  his  taxes  to  the 
uttermost  farthing.  To  be  sure,  there  are  laws  re- 
cently made  which  make  for  equal  division  of  property 
among  the  children,  when  the  head  of  the  house  dies, 
and  some  of  the  large  estates  are  thus  broken  up.  Un- 
til more  favourable  terms  of  owning  property  can  be 
arranged  for  the  present-day  immigrant,  this  richly 
resourceful  country  will  lag  behind  its  possible  prog- 
ress. At  present  the  sons  of  these  men  of  wealth  of  the 
Capital  city  do  not  reveal  a  taste  for  industry  or  hard 
work.  It  better  suits  their  taste  and  temperament  to 
choose  law  or  politics  as  a  profession,  rather  than 
commerce,  leaving  the  brunt  of  the  burden  bearing, 
and  emoluments  as  well,  of  industrial  and  economic 


256     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

development  to  foreigners.  They  have  been  brought 
up  in  a  school  where  men  are  seldom  referred  to  as 
possessing  so  much  a  year.  Income  is  not  a  subject  of 
interest  with  the  Buenos  Aires  plutocratic  scion,  but 
property  and  social  standing  are  judged  by  capital. 

These  men  of  wealth  have  rather  turned  their  at- 
tention of  late  to  the  breeding  of  blooded  cattle,  sheep 
and  hogs,  which  they  have  imported  from  Europe  at 
fabulous  prices.  The  stock  show  and  breeding  business 
has  become  a  kind  of  mania  with  the  estancia  aristo- 
crat. Prices  are  paid  for  breeding  animals  quite  out 
of  proportion  to  their  value.  One  cannot  but  feel  that 
in  spite  of  certain  real  advantages  secured,  the  tend- 
ency at  present  is  to  make  this  business  a  fad  for  the 
rich  and  fashionable.  The  man  who  fails  to  get  him- 
self before  the  public  as  a  politician,  or  in  any  other 
way,  can  accomplish  the  feat  and  have  this  whole  cattle 
country  ring  with  his  name  before  night  by  paying 
$50,000  for  a  prize  bull. 

Besides  this  hobby,  horse  racing  is  by  way  of  being 
a  national  institution,  and  the  course  at  Palermo  is  a 
notable  sight.  All  Buenos  Aires  turns  out  to  attend 
these  races,  and  the  Avenida  Alvear,  which  leads  out 
to  the  track,  on  the  day  of  a  fashionable  meeting,  is  a 
vivid  motion  picture,  in  which  hired  cabs  and  victorias 
jostle  smart  private  carriages  and  speeding  motor  cars. 
Among  the  imposing  array  of  great  white  stands  and 
stables,  the  private  stand  and  enclosure  of  the  Jockey 
Club  deserve  particular  mention.  White  marble  has 
been  generously  used  in  its  construction,  while  the  ter- 
race before  it  is  made  beautiful  with  flowers  and  small 
trees,  as  is  also  the  great  field  in  the  centre  of  the  track. 


BUENOS  AIRES,  THE  CITY  DE  LUXE    257 

The  racing  itself  is  said  to  equal  its  setting,  and  the 
Jockey  Club,  which  controls  the  Palermo  course,  re- 
ceives from  it  its  chief  revenues. 

The  Matadores  is  another  sight  which  makes  a 
journey  to  the  suburbs  worth  one's  while.  Here  is 
brought  most  of  the  live  stock  that  forms  such  an  im- 
portant source  of  the  city's  prosperity — for  sale  and 
for  slaughter.  Three  or  four  thousand  head  of  cattle 
are  disposed  of  daily  at  the  Matadores,  and  the  place 
forms  a  well-sized  settlement,  in  itself,  of  cattle  yards, 
auction  rooms,  office  buildings  and  laboratories.  In 
these  last  a  careful  watch  is  continually  kept  to  guard 
against  possible  disease  among  the  animals,  which,  if 
not  checked  at  the  very  outset,  is  likely  to  mean  an 
enormous  loss;  this  loss  would  be  felt  not  alone  in 
Argentina,  but  in  the  United  States  and  Europe,  both 
of  which  have  come  to  depend  more  and  more  upon  this 
source  of  supplies. 

No  article  in  this  city  would  be  complete  without 
mention  of  the  Argentine  women ;  and  it  must  be  said, 
furthermore,  that  the  women  of  Buenos  Aires,  both 
by  their  beauty  and  feminine  charm,  live  up  to  the 
artistic  standard  of  the  Capital's  homes  and  general 
magnificence.  No  longer  do  you  see  the  "manta"  of 
Peru  and  Chile.  These  women  dress  in  the  height 
of  Parisian  fashion,  and  they  wear  their  clothes  with 
a  style  that  one  sees  only  on  the  Rue  de  la  Paix.  Lady 
Argentina  is  perfectly  coiffed,  perfectly  gowned,  per- 
fectly shod,  and  as  she  passes  before  you  she  is  the 
acme  of  well-groomed  womanhood,  but — she  lacks 
animation,  she  seems  more  like  a  beautiful  doll.  Yet 
she  lives  up  to  what  is  required  of  her  by  her  men. 


258     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  Portenos  want  their  women  feminine  in  the  ex- 
treme; they  want  them  demure  and  restrained,  as  if 
still  beneath  the  spell  of  old  Spain.  They  want  them  to 
be  good  housekeepers,  devoted  mothers,  and  they  are 
both  of  these  in  a  superlative  degree.  They  also  hold 
the  key  to  religion  in  their  hands,  especially  those  of 
the  upper  classes.  In  activity  they  differ  from  the 
women  of  the  United  States  so  far  as  expression  of 
their  mental  abilities  is  related  to  anything  outside  of 
the  home,  in  the  realm  of  social  or  public  endeavour. 
Their  intelligence,  however,  is  undoubted,  and  many 
would  contend  that  the  Argentine  woman  is  more  than 
an  equal  for  her  husband  in  this  regard. 

Slowly  the  women  of  Buenos  Aires  are  breaking 
away  from  the  Spanish  exclusiveness,  which  has  kept 
them  Orientally  shut  away  from  the  world.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  this  beautiful  type  of  femininity  will 
join  the  ranks  of  the  suffragists  in  this  or  the  next  gen- 
eration even,  but  through  travel  and  increasing  contact 
with  other  nationalities  (she  speaks,  as  a  rule,  several 
languages  fluently)  she  will  doubtless  be  the  first 
woman  in  South  America  to  join  the  standard  of  fem- 
inism which  is  now  advancing  so  rapidly  around  the 
world. 

What  kind  of  future  awaits  this  city  de  luxe,  with 
its  intelligent  and  modern  men  and  women,  its  prodi- 
gal expenditure  of  wealth  upon  municipal  improve- 
ments, its  educational  system  that  will  bear  comparison 
with  any  other  land,  and  its  ever  enlarging  scientific , 
hold  upon  its  landed  industry? 

Racially  there  is  a  purity  of  Caucasion  blood  here 
hardly  to  be  met  with  elsewhere  in  South  American 


BUENOS  AIRES,  THE  CITY  DE  LUXE    259 

cities.  There  is,  indeed,  less  than  five  per  cent  of  non- 
Caucasian  blood  in  Argentina,  according  to  recent  sta- 
tistics, while  the  United  States  has  eleven  per  cent. 
With  the  exception  of  the  Canadians,  possibly  no  peo- 
ple in  the  Western  Hemisphere  are  so  truly  European 
as  these  inhabitants  of  Buenos  Aires.  Northern  Italy 
has  been  contributing  in  large  numbers  her  firmer  stock 
to  the  commercial  life  of  the  city  and  country,  and  in 
the  expanding  economic  progress  the  Latin  race  seems 
here  to  be  taking  fresh  hold  upon  life  and  opportunity. 
Activity  and  growth  are  the  words  belonging  to  the 
new  Buenos  Aires.  "One  day,"  said  a  Porteno,  "our 
city  will  be  the  Capital  of  100,000,000  people,  whom 
our  wide  plains  can  easily  support.', 

With  a  government  growing  more  and  more  stable, 
a  trade  with  outside  nations  becoming  increasingly  ex- 
tensive, and  with  the  possession  of  a  boundless  faith  in 
itself,  Argentina,  like  the  United  States,  is  a  land  of 
to-morrow.  Like  her  northern  neighbour,  also,  she 
has  her  foes  lying  in  wait  for  her  in  the  form  of  plu- 
tocracy and  the  dead  level  resulting  from  irreligion. 
It  is  not  in  material  magnificence  that  this  fair  city  of 
La  Plata  will  fail,  but  more  likely  by  reason  of  her 
failure  to  cultivate  the  unseen  but  no  less  real  life  of 
the  spirit.  Like  many  another  New  World  city,  filled 
with  utilitarian  gods,  Buenos  Aires,  especially  in  her 
ruling  classes,  needs  to  invite  to  her  aid  Ruskin's  three 
guardian  angels — Conduct,  Toil  and  Thought. 

A  professor  in  the  University  of  Buenos  Aires  said 
to  me: 

"My  great  life  aim  is  to  rid  my  country  of  two  of 
her  arch  foes,  socialism  and  religion." 


260     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

It  is  conceivable  that  Buenos  Aires  and  the  country 
over  which  she  is  the  beautiful  presiding  mistress, 
might  with  profit  change  the  form  and  even  the  spirit 
of  her  faith,  but  that  she  should  abandon  religion  al- 
together would  seem  impossible  of  belief.  Repeatedly 
one  hears  from  her  most  serious  citizens  the  statement 
that  Buenos  Aires  at  present  needs  men  of  character 
and  power  of  will.  When  this  City  of  the  South  be- 
comes truly  convinced  of  this,  she  will  have  little  to 
fear  as  to  her  future  destiny. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  SOUTH  AMERICAN   COWBOY 

Cattle  and  the  hose  have  determined  the  habits  of  the  Ar- 
gentine and  the  Uruguayan. — Lord  Bryce. 

THE  inhabitant  of  the  United  States  who  visits 
the  pampa  sections  of  Argentina,  Uruguay  and 
Brazil,  is  reminded  repeatedly  of  the  history  of  the 
plainsman's  life  in  his  own  country.  To  be  sure  the 
days  of  the  Wyoming  and  Texas  cowboy,  together 
with  the  menace  of  the  Western  Indian,  have  passed  in 
North  America,  and  these  adventurous  and  reckless 
frontiersmen  are  now  met  only  in  books  or  in  the  tales 
of  the  older  inhabitants.  Yet  there  is  something  fasci- 
nating and  attractive  in  the  audacity,  the  frankness  and 
the  ostentatious  display  of  these  men  of  the  West  who 
were  always  associated  with  their  horses,  cattle,  and 
hair-breadth  escapes.  Even  to-day  the  "Wild  West 
Show"  forms  one  of  our  attractive  annual  events. 

The  romance  of  these  cowboy  days  of  the  United 
States  finds  its  reflection  in  the  gauchos  of  South  Amer- 
ica. Indeed,  the  Argentines  fifty  years  ago  were  for 
"the  most  part  men  of  this  class,  and  the  bravery  and 
daring  of  these  men  as  fighters  with  their  open-air, 
active  and  lawless  ways  marks  an  interesting  epoch 
in  the  history  of  this  republic. 

261 


262      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  railroads,  the  harbingers  of  enlightened  prog- 
ress but  the  destroyers  of  primitive  romance,  began 
half  a  century  ago  to  pierce  their  paths  through  the 
leagues  of  pasturage  surrounding  Buenos  Aires,  where 
flocks  and  herds  wandered  then  to  suit  their  fancy  on 
the  unfenced  prairies.  The  railroads  were  a  greater 
menace  to  the  lawless  frontiersmen  than  were  the  In- 
dians whom  they  fought  so  persistently.  These  roads 
reached  beyond  the  cultivated  camps  to  those  interior 
regions  where  the  moving  tents  of  the  South  American 
Indian  receded  before  the  iron  march  of  civilisation. 
These  were  not  the  Cuzco  Indians,  industrious,  and  giv- 
ing themselves  peacefully  to  a  settled  life,  but  the  wild 
tribes  to  whom  the  white  man's  regime  was  as  much 
a  mystery  as  a  menace.  Their  only  safety  was  in 
flight,  fighting  as  they  went,  to  more  desolate  regions. 

In  the  wake  of  the  Indian  came  his  rival,  the  gaucho. 
This  picturesque  individual  has  been  intimately  asso- 
ciated with  the  ruling  industry  of  Argentina,  the  cattle 
business,  and  the  story  of  his  life  always  connected 
with  his  horse,  his  lariat,  his  games,  his  poetry,  and 
his  fierce  scouting  expeditions  on  the  broad  plains, 
casts  about  one  the  spell  of  bygone  days. 

At  present  a  progressive  modern  civilisation  seems 
to  be  getting  too  strong  for  him,  and  in  Argentina, 
especially,  he  is  being  pressed  back  farther  and  farther 
into  the  remote  wastes  of  the  pampa,  driven  before  a 
machine-made  culture  which  he  can  hardly  understand. 
Many  indeed  have  left  the  plains  to  become  policemen 
in  the  cities  or  cuirassed  members  of  the  President's 
guard.  Still,  in  such  sections  as  the  Province  of  San- 
tiago del  Estero,   and  then  farther  west  and  north, 


THE  SOUTH  AMERICAN  COWBOY 

where  the  breath  of  the  modern  city  is  rarely  felt,  you 
will  still  find  the  gaucho,  a  potent  factor  in  the  rural 
life. 

Here  this  pioneer  of  other  days  possesses  the  chief 
characteristics  which  have  always  associated  him  with 
a  magic  and  imaginative  existence.  His  eyes  are  dark 
and  dreamy  and  flashing  often  with  anger;  his  skin 
is  bronzed  with  the  sun ;  his  hair  is  worn  long  often  and 
sometimes  it  is  plaited;  he  is  always  associated  with 
his  mate,  the  aromatic  beverage  prepared  from  the 
leaves  of  the  mate  tree,  and  roasted  beef,  as  our 
American  cowboy  depended  upon  his  beans  and  coffee. 
He  always  carries  the  long  knife  which  he  uses  at  his 
table  d'hote,  and  as  a  weapon  of  offence  and  defence  in 
place  of  a  revolver.  lfie  reminds  you  somewhat  of  the 
old  Cossack  of  Southern  Russia ;  few  horsemen  surpass 
him  in  his  ability  to  ride)  His  dress  is  in  some  respects 
similar  to  that  of  the  Indian,  consisting  of  a  poncho, 
which  is  a  square  piece  of  cloth  with  a  hole  cut  for  the 
head  to  pass  through,  and  the  trousers,  among  the  Ar- 
gentine gauchos,  tight-fitting,  and  often  covered  with 
"chaps."  The  ponchos v( often  resemble  in  variegated 
colouring,  the  Navajo  Indian  blankets, ,  and  when  a 
crowd  of  gauchos  come  together  for  their  games  or 
festivals,  the  colour  picture  is  a  striking  one.  The  gau- 
cho is  devoted  also  to  his  sheepskin  saddle,  which  he 
uses  at  night  on  the  pampa  as  a  pillow,  while  his  pon- 
cho serves  as  a  blanket.  Many  of  these  saddles  are 
inlaid  with  silver  and  cost  a  small  fortune;  they  are 
also  the  causes  of  many  personal  feuds  among  the 
plainsmen. 

The  lasso,  which  the  gaucho  uses  as  his  chief  weapon 


264      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

against  both  cattle  and  men,  has  a  ball  attached  to  the 
end  of  it,  sometimes  of  metal  and  often  of  stone.  It 
is  so  hurled  that  it  coils  itself  around  the  legs  of  the 
victim.  These,  however,  are  not  so  commonly  in  use 
as  in  former  days,  but  the  lariat  is  seen  usually  coiled 
at  the  cowboy's  saddle  bow. 

Racially  the  gaucho  is  of  mixed  element.  The 
Spanish  adventurer  and  Indian  maternal  ancestry  are 
mixed  with  the  romance  and  the  mystery  of  the  Moor 
who  figured  so  potently  in  the  old  brilliant  Arabic  days 
in  Spain.  Mr.  W.  H.  Koebel,  an  English  writer, 
speaking  of  the  gaucho,  says : 

"There  is  a  certain  poetry  and  picturesqueness  about 
the  race,  as  about  the  Moors  of  Castile,  which  almost 
makes'  one  regret  to  see  pass  away  a  fellow  who  will 
sleep  on  his  saddle  at  your  doorsill,  like  a  faithful  dog; 
who  endures  heat  or  cold,  hunger  and  thirst  without  ut- 
tering a  complaint,  who  rides  five  hundred  miles  on  end 
at  your  bidding,  sleeping  in  the  open  air,  providing  his 
food  with  the  lasso  and  disposing  of  it  by  the  simple 
appliances  of  his  knife,  flint  and  steel,  with  bones  or 
dried  reeds  as  fuel;  who  would  take  cows  or  horses 
of  any  one  but  his  patron;  who,  perhaps,  might  knock 
a  man  off  his  horse  and  cut  his  throat  for  his  spurs 
and  stirrups,  if  so  it  took  his  fancy,  but  who,  in  his 
patron's  service,  could  with  perfect  confidence  be 
trusted  with  hundreds  of  pounds  to  go  as  many  leagues 
to  purchase  and  bring  in  cattle ;  who  moves  with  grace, 
speaks  with  courtesy,  asks  after  all  the  family  in  de- 
tail, sends  his  compliments  to  the  patrona,  or  com- 
pliments her  if  he  has  the  opportunity;  who  marks  on 
the  ground  the  different  brands  of  horses  or  cattle  of 


THE  GAUCHO  AS  A  WANDERING  MINSTREL 


A  FINE  GROUP  OF  GAUCHOS  AT  A  COUNTRY  ESTATE 


THE  SOUTH  AMERICAN  COWBOY        265 

numerous  owners,  and  traces  stolen  or  strayed  animals 
over  thousands  of  leagues — such  is  my  friend  the 
gauche" 

This  pioneer  of  the  plains  earned  his  semi-magic 
reputation,  which  still  clings  about  him,  by  an  almost  un- 
canny intuition  resulting  from  his  long  acquaintance 
with  the  open  spaces  of  nature.  One  is  told  that  these 
men  can  never  get  lost  in  the  pampa's  wide  immensity, 
and  that  every  sign  like  a  bird  call,  the  bruising  of  the 
blades  of  grass,  or  the  pricking  forward  of  the  horse's 
ears,  has  a  meaning  for  him.  The  eyes  of  the  gaucho 
can  distinguish  among  a  galloping  troop  of  hundreds 
of  animals,  we  are  told,  the  young  horse  which  the 
year  before,  as  a  foal,  had  been  singled  out  for  his 
own  future  use.  His  ears  are  so  acute  that  he  can 
tell  from  the  thunder  of  hoofs  on  the  hard  pampa, 
while  the  animals  are  still  far  out  of  sight,  whether  a 
stampede  has  been  caused  by  threatening  weather  or 
by  an  attack  of  Indians.  He  can  count  the  units 
which  compose  an  approaching  troop  and  know 
whether  these  are  mounted  and  by  what  kind  of  men, 
accoutred  soldiers  or  half-naked  savages,  all  through 
the  sensitiveness  of  his  trained  hearing. 

The  gaucho  belongs  to  the  great  "estancia"  life  of 
Argentina,  and  these  "estancias"  with  their  big  houses, 
each  with  its  semi-covered  patio  and  flat  roof,  and 
placed  in  the  midst  of  a  desolation  of  monotonous  flat- 
ness, save  for  the  few  trees  that  surround  the  house, 
form  the  centre  about  which  his  activities  are  engaged. 
A  short  distance  from  the  ^seigniorial  'mansion  one 
found  in  former  days  the  hut-like  ranches  of  the  peons 
and  shepherds,  who  also  lived  the  gaucho  life. 


266     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

It  was  to  the  great  festivals  when  the  dividing  of 
the  flocks  and  herds  occurred  that  all  gaucho  society 
assembled  on  its  respective  lands  to  eat  the  gsa do  came 
con  cuerd,  a  beast  roasted  whole  and  in  its  hide.,  [  It  is 
here  that  occurred  the  exchanges  of  jokes  and  wit  of 
the  keen  herdsmen  and  horsemen,  and  it  was  here  also 
that  the  native  minstrelsy  was  born  and  practised  a 
kind  of  a  folklore  that  fitted  the  free  and  untrammelled 
life  of  these  prairies.  > 

The  guitar  was  and  is  the  musical  instrument  of  the 
gaucho,  and  the  slow  measured  dance  and  the  soft 
singing  of  the  "payador,"  or  minstrel,  who  was  re- 
nowned far  and  wide  in  the  pampa  world  was  a  notable 
part  of  these  celebrations.  These  songs  were  filled 
with  all  the  sentiment  and  sadness  of  the  Spanish- 
Indian  stock,  and  they  spoke  of  love  and  danger^  often 
ending  a  fierce  combat  between  two  rival  minstrels^ 

The  gauchos  of  Argentina  to-day  are  fond  of  tell- 
ing about  one  of  these  poetical  tournaments  which  seems 
emblematical  in  its  delineation  of  the  present-day  con- 
dition of  the  members  of  this  picturesque  race  of  men. 
^  Santos  Viga,  who  is  to  the  gaucho  the  Homer  of 
the  pampa,  entered  into  the  lists  of  minstrelsy  against 
Juan  Sinropa,  who  is  known  among  the  plainsmen  as 
the  Devil.  As  the  story  goes,  Santos  Viga,  overcome 
by  his  opponent  and  unable  to  bear  the  disgrace  of  de- 
feat, mounted  his  horse  and  disappeared  into  the 
boundless  level  wastes  of  the  Argentine  prairies  never 
more  to  return.  It  is  said  that  the  shepherds  of  the 
plains  often  see  in  fancy  this  ancient  minstrel  mounted 
on  a  dark  steed  and  galloping  over  the  pampa  in  the 


THE  SOUTH  AMERICAN  COWBOY        267 

chilly  moonlight,  holding  a  loose  rein  on  the  mane  of 
his  mount,  and  bearing  his  guitar  on  his  shoulder. 

It  would  seem  less  illusory  to  recognise  in  this 
pampian  Mephistopheles,  as  one  modern  writer  has 
done,  the  modern  spirit  of  the  new  Argentine  city, 
which  has  come  to  meet  the  gaucho  face  to  face,  armed 
with  no  primitive  lariat  and  weapon,  but  equipped  with 
all  that  modernity  and  industry  can  furnish.  Even  the 
bravery  of  the  gaucho  can  not  stand  single-handed  be- 
fore the  march  of  the  world's  science.  He  has  ac- 
cepted defeat  and  quietly  withdrawn  from  the  unequal 
contest.  In  another  quarter  of  a  century  it  will  be  as 
difficult  to  find  him  in  Argentina  as  to-day  it  is  difficult 
to  find  the  North  American  frontiersman,  like  Daniel 
Boone,  Kit  Carson,  and  their  reckless,  audacious  fol- 
lowers. As  he  passes  he  will  leave  a  chapter  of  in- 
teresting frontier  history  for  future  generations,  and  in 
his  nature  he  will  furnish  a  mirror  in  which  is  reflected 
clearly  some  of  the  outstanding  characteristics  domi- 
nating the  primitive  stock  from  which  the  modern  de- 
scendants of  the  progressive  South  American  republic 
have  sprung.    &* 

The  Uruguayan  gaucho  resembles  his  neighbour  in 
Argentina  and  Brazil,  especially  in  his  love  for 
blooded  horses,  his  audacity  and  the  power  of  endur- 
ance stimulated  by  his  ever  present  mate.  His  fighting 
instincts  have  been  more  fully  developed,  for  it  was 
men  of  this  class  who  fought  under  the  leadership  of 
Artigas,  the  hero  of  Uruguay,  for  the  independence  of 
this  republic.  These  plainsmen  have  been  in  many 
bloody  encounters  with  neighbouring  States,  and  their 


268      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

patriotism  and  sense  of  honour  and  hospitality  are  un- 
questioned. 

As  one  travels  northward  the  gaucho  type  becomes 
finer,  and  in  South  Brazil  he  is  hardly  distinguishable 
at  times  from  the  landowner  and  the  big  fazenda  pro- 
prietor, who  often  assume  the  poncho,  sombrero,  and 
the  baggy  trousers  (bombachas)  of  the  Brazilian  cow- 
boy. The  inhabitants  of  the  Brazilian  State  of  Rio 
Grande  do  Sul  are  fond  of  calling  their  State  terra 
gaucha — the  land  of  the  gauchos.  Here  the  cowboy 
is  coming  into  his  own  as  the  great  section  is  beginning 
anew  its  modern  industry  of  freezing  meat,  and  breed- 
ing cattle,  sheep,  and  horses  on  an  enormous  scale.  He 
is  still  the  dashing,  picturesque  figure  which  one  sees  in 
the  countries  farther  south,  though  not  afraid  of  civi- 
lisation, and  destined  to  become  an  important  factor 
in  the  development  of  the  huge  cattle-lands  of  Matto 
Grosso,  Minas  Geraes  and  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  His 
food  is  the  Brazilian  xarque — dried  beef — the  mate  of 
Parana,  black  beans  and  mandioca.  The  cattlemen  are 
called  sometimes  "vaqueros"  in  Brazil.  Their  future 
is  filled  with  promise,  and  South  Brazil  with  its  rolling 
plains  :   their  paradise. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS 

THE  visitor  to  the  Republic  of  Uruguay  is  quite 
likely  to  ask  among  his  first  questions  why  this 
small  but  progressive  state  is  known  as  the  "Oriental 
Republic."  He  will  be  told  that  it  was  simply  be- 
cause Uruguay  represented  the  eastern  section  of  Ar- 
gentina before  the  two  republics  were  separated.  That, 
however,  the  republic  of  one  and  one-half  million  in- 
habitants which  established  its  freedom  and  indepen- 
dence in  1830,  and  prides  itself  upon  many  unique  and 
individual  enterprises,  possesses  any  more  of  the  traits 
Oriental  than  any  other  South  American  republic  is 
not  readily  discerned.  Uruguay,  on  the  other  hand, 
especially  in  the  construction  of  its  constitution  and  in 
the  promotion  of  its  government,  reminds  one  often 
of  the  United  States,  from  which  country  this  "graz- 
ing" land  has  taken  many  of  its  principles. 

A  foreign  gentleman  in  the  city  of  Buenos  Aires 
told  me  upon  my  departure  for  Montevideo  that  Uru- 
guay was  simply  looking  through  the  small  end  of  the 
telescope,  as  compared  with  Argentina,  that,  in  fact, 
this  small  republic,  which  depends  almost  entirely  upon 
its  cattle  and  sheep  for  its  sustenance,  was  considerably 
an  imitator  of  its  larger  and  nearest  neighbour.  My 
own  study  gave  me  a  somewhat  different  conception.     I 

269 


270      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

found  here  a  republic  keenly  alive  to  originating  laws 
and  conditions  directly  adaptable  to  its  own  popula- 
tion. One  finds  peculiar  laws  relating  to  the  labouring 
man,  such  as  the  one  making  it  possible  for  the  work- 
man to  toil  not  more  than  eight  hours  daily  for  six 
days  in  the  week,  and  carrying  this  injunction  to  the 
extent  that  no  man  shall  labour  more  than  forty-eight 
hours  a  week.  The  labourer  is  allowed  to  work  more 
than  eight  hours  in  a  single  day,  but  the  sum  total  of 
his  weekly  toil  must  be  kept  within  the  forty-eight 
hours,  assuring  a  rest  day.  As  a  Uruguayan  expressed 
it,  "We  believe  in  a  rhythmic  round  of  toil  which 
makes  it  possible  to  have  five-sixths  of  the  population 
working  every  day  in  the  week,  and  one-sixth  resting." 

I  found  the  independence  of  this  nation  asserting 
itself  in  the  new  improvement  works  relative  to  the 
docks  at  which  the  numerous  vessels  discharge  their 
cargo.  Because  of  the  lack  of  wharfage  it  has  been 
customary  for  boats  to  discharge  their  cargos  by 
means  of  lighters,  and  the  lighterage  company  for 
many  years  has  been  doing  a  large  and  lucrative  busi- 
ness with  a  four  million  dollar  investment  in  this  ex- 
cellent port.  The  Government  with  one  brave  stroke 
has  spent  recently  twenty-five  million  dollars  for  the 
construction  of  new  dockage  which  will  accommodate 
fifteen  vessels  at  one  time.  A  severe  fight  was  brought 
on  thereby  with  the  lighterage  company,  and  the  con- 
test was  carried  as  far  as  London,  a  kind  of  boycott 
being  installed  against  this  port  for  a  time  with  the 
hope  that  the  Government  would  yield  to  the  powerful 
arguments  of  the  rich  lighterage  company. 

During  my  interview  with  Dr.  Viera,  the  republic's 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     271 

President,  I  learned  of  a  unique  arrangement  in  this 
country  by  which  a  student  can  pass  from  the  kinder- 
garten stage  to  the  last  moment  of  graduate  work  in 
the  best  technical  school  or  university,  without  paying 
one  penny  for  his  tuition, — text-books  even  being  pro- 
vided by  the  State.  On  this  question  of  education 
President  Viera  revealed  much  enthusiasm,  being  justly 
proud  of  the  nation's  schools  for  adults  founded  in 
1907  and  placed  under  the  public  school  administra- 
tion, also  gratuitous  and  open  both  day  and  night,  the 
school  for  backward  children,  and  the  school  for  the 
professional  training  of  working  girls,  directed  by 
teachers  educated  for  the  purpose  in  Europe  and 
North  America.  The  national  school  of  arts  and 
trades  is  Carried  on  directly  in  line  with  the  national 
industries;  there  is  also  the  department  of  secondary 
and  preparatory  instruction  exclusively  for  women  (all 
of  the  professors  are  women)  ;  there  is,  too,  the  de- 
partmental lyceum  in  the  eighteen  departments  of  the 
republic,  including  the  special  public  lecturer,  serving 
a  public  lecture  plan  similar  to  that  in  connection  with 
the  public  schools  in  the  "States,"  in  addition  to  the 
regular  educational  features.  Our  attention  was  also 
called  to  the  national  orchestra,  consisting  of  sixty  mu- 
sicians who  during  the  months  of  April  and  May, 
give  daily  concerts  in  one  of  the  principal  theatres 
of  the  Capital,  and  in  addition  visit  cities  of  the  interior 
for  concert  work.  The  original  value  of  this  orchestra 
is  aimed  at  the  development  of  creative  activity  on  the 
part  of  national  composers,  whose  works  are  especially 
used  by  these  musicians.  An  experimental  school  of 
dramatic  art,  founded  by  the  Italian  actress,  Jacinta 


Ti%      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Pezzana,  renders  four  performances  a  week,  each  of 
which  is  free,  the  expenses  being  borne  entirely  by  the 
State. 

There  are  oth^r  things  interesting  to  the  foreigner 
concerning  the  President  of  the  Republic  of  Uruguay 
in  addition  to  his  loyalty  to  education. 

One's  first  impression  of  this  gentleman  is  to  the 
effect  that  he  is  one  of  the  stoutest  gentlemen  one  has 
ever  seen  in  his  life.  In  fact,  he  is  often  compared 
with  Ex-President  Taft  in  this  regard,  though  we  doubt 
much  whether  Professor  Taft,  even  before  his  success- 
ful activities  in  reduction,  equalled  President  Viera's 
physical  proportions. 

Since  it  is  a  law  in  Uruguay  that  the  Chief  Executive 
of  the  Republic  cannot  succeed  himself  without  an 
intervening  four  years,  the  visitor  will  be  told  that  the 
former  President  of  Rooseveltian  energy  and  tenden- 
cies, Jose  Battley  Ordonez,  searched  among  his  friends 
for  a  man  sufficiently  adaptable  to  carry  out  his  plans 
and  hold  his  seat  until  he  could  again  be  elected  as 
President.  In  Dr.  Viera  he  fixed  upon  a  man  who 
proved  capable,  not  only  of  fully  occupying  the  large 
chair  of  state  in  the  Government  palace,  but  who  also 
has  shown  signs  of  individual  independence  which  it  is 
said  is  not  altogether  pleasing  to  the  former  Executive. 
Dr.  Viera's  present  popularity  with  the  people  has  led 
those  politicians  who  seemed  to  desire  him  simply  as 
a  figurehead,  to  become  somewhat  nervous.  During 
my  visit  to  Montevideo  I  was  invited  to  attend  in  one 
of  the  large  theatres  a  meeting  of  appreciation  ar- 
ranged in  honour  of  the  President,  at  which  hundreds 
of  Uruguayans  gathered  to  hear  speeches  and  unite  in 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     273 

vast  applause  on  behalf  of  the  republic's  present 
leader. 

The  discrimination  of  Dr.  Viera  came  out  when  I 
asked  concerning  his  attitude  towards  immigration  and 
the  labour  problems  of  his  country. 

"To  be  sure  we  want  immigration  here,  but  we  want 
additional  population  of  the  right  kind.  Uruguay  does 
not  possess  facilities  and  resources  for  manufacturing 
because  of  her  lack  of  coal,  wood  and  iron.  The 
republic  has  on  the  other  hand  tremendous  resources 
for  the  raising  of  live  stock  and  also  for  agricultural 
development.  It  is  necessary  to  have  our  recruits 
chosen  with  a  view  to  the  kind  of  work  which  the  na- 
tion needs.  We  do  not  require  the  vast  influx  of  labour- 
ing population  which  Argentina  and  the  United  States, 
for  example,  have  been  receiving,  since  the  time  is  not 
ripe  for  them,  and  furthermore  they  would  find  little 
congenial  to  their  abilities  in  Uruguay." 

As  I  had  been  impressed  with  the  lack  of  horses  or 
horse  raising  in  Uruguay,  which  we  had  somehow  con- 
nected with  this  republic,  I  inquired  as  to  why  Uru- 
guay did  not  devote  herself  to  the  horse-raising  in- 
dustry. It  was  brought  out  in  reply  that  in  the  time  of 
revolutions,  of  which  Uruguay  had  had  her  share  in 
former  days,  but  which  were  now  things  of  the  past, 
the  revolutionists  who  were  successful  had  a  disagree- 
able habit  of  seizing  the  horses  as  a  legitimate  prey, 
which  was  naturally  a  discouragement  to  the  farmer 
along  this  line  of  industry. 

A  somewhat  unique  feature  of  government  is 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  investigator  in  Uru- 
guay in  the  Collegiate  Presidency.     This  plan,  which 


274     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

was  strongly  promulgated  by  Dr.  Viera's  predecessor, 
called  for  seven  presidents  instead  of  one. 

"What,"  I  inquired,  "was  the  advantage  which  was 
expected  to  accrue  from  such  an  arrangement  ?" 

"The  idea  was  to  prevent  the  usurpation  of  power 
by  one  man  whose  views  and  procedure  were  practic- 
ally unknown  to  the  electorate  previous  to  his  occupa- 
tion of  the  Presidency.  For  example,  the  present 
President  of  Argentina  is  somewhat  of  an  experiment, 
the  people  hardly  knowing  just  what  is  going  to  hap- 
pen when  the  untried  man  of  a  new  party  comes  into 
power.  This  creates  an  uncertainty  in  business,  and  it 
is  thought  that  if  several  men  had  the  executive  leader- 
ship of  the  country,  the  plan  would  make  for  stability 
and  national  certainty." 

The  first  consideration  of  such  a  plan  impresses  one 
with  considerable  doubt  as  to  any  gain  accruing  to  a 
republic  in  the  way  of  unity  or  certainty  by  having 
seven  men  trying  to  run  things  rather  than  one,  and  the 
generally  accepted  belief  that  Dr.  Viera  is  a  far  less 
firm  adherent  to  this  policy  than  was  his  predecessor 
increases  one's  confidence  in  his  judgment. 

I  was  interested  furthermore  to  ask  the  President 
the  question  which  I  placed  before  other  Chief  Ex- 
ecutives and  business  men  of  these  South  American 
states: 

"What  is  your  opinion  concerning  trade  with  the 
United  States?  Will  the  present  business  which  the 
Uruguayans  are  carrying  on  with  America,  largely  be- 
cause it  is  impossible  at  present  to  trade  with  Europe, 
continue  after  the  war?" 

"We  like  the  Americans,"  responded  the  President, 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     275 

4 'and  we  should  like  to  trade  with  you,  but  the  tradi- 
tions and  customs  of  doing  business  here  are  similar  to 
those  in  other  South  American  republics,  and  the  man- 
ufacturers of  the  United  States  do  not  seem  to  under- 
stand these  conditions,  or  at  least  they  have  not  shown 
signs  of  adapting  themselves  to  our  modes  of  buying 
and  receiving  goods  from  abroad.  There  are  many 
complaints  at  present  from  our  people  regarding  ship- 
ments, packing,  and  manner  of  payment.  It  will  de- 
pend largely  upon  the  United  States  whether  the  bulk 
of  the  trade  now  being  carried  on  with  you  is  continued 
after  the  war.  It  is  my  private  opinion  that  unless 
some  radical  changes  are  made,  this  trade  will  return 
to  Europe.  Our  people  are  by  language  and  senti- 
ment sympathetically  united  especially  with  the  French, 
where  the  Uruguayans  go  for  their  holidays,  and  the 
easy  adjustments  which  the  Germans  and  the  English 
have  made  in  our  favour  in  the  past  have  formed  tra- 
ditions and  associations  of  long  standing.  The  Latin- 
American  is  peculiarly  susceptible  to  traditions,  and  his 
conservatism  and  loyalty  to  people  with  whom  he  has 
been  accustomed  to  trade  are  strong  forces." 

The  President  of  Uruguay  impresses  one  as  being, 
like  most  large  men,  exceedingly  agreeable  and  human. 
We  were  received  in  a  most  unpretentious  manner,  and 
his  kindliness  was  revealed  in  his  desire  to  do  every- 
thing in  his  power  to  acquaint  us  with  the  real  condi- 
tions and  facts  making  for  a  more  thorough  and 
friendly  understanding  between  Uruguay  and  the 
United  States.  One  receives  the  impression  that,  like 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  he  enjoys  the  pleas- 
ures of  private  life  untrammelled  with  the  cares  of 


276      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

office.  One  is  told  that  among  the  President's  diver- 
sions is  that  of  joining  a  party  of  friends  and  going 
out  to  a  large  estancia,  where  a  great  barbecue  is  held. 
He  indulges  in  the  national  custom,  prevalent  here  as 
in  Argentina,  the  other  great  cattle  country,  of  sitting 
around  a  great  fire  over  which  an  ox  is  roasted  whole, 
and  armed  with  a  huge  knife  slicing  off  a  generous 
piece  of  the  fresh  roast,  which  is  held  in  one  hand. 
Then,  with  a  generous  piece  of  the  meat  in  his  teeth, 
the  dexterous  manipulator  of  the  knife  is  supposed 
with  one  slash  to  cut  this  off  as  close  to  his  face  as  his 
nose  will  allow.  One  would  surmise  that  the  President 
owed  his  superiority  in  this  exercise  to  the  fact  that 
his  Executive  nose  is  rather  flat  than  long.  One  plainly 
observes  that  this  is  no  game  for  one  of  Hebraic  fea- 
tures. 

That  Dr.  Viera  is  practically  well  disposed  to  the 
United  States  and  to  American  institutions  was  brought 
out  by  the  statement  that  he  was  in  favour  of  sending 
increasingly  the  students  of  this  republic  to  the  United 
States  for  education. 

UI  am  sending  three  of  my  boys  at  present,"  said 
he,  "to  American  schools." 

It  speaks  well  for  the  economics  of  this  small  re- 
public that,  however  Uruguay  may  have  been  tempted 
in  critical  junctures  of  her  history,  she  has  never  defi- 
nitely repudiated  a  single  obligation,  nor  overtly  made 
a  move  which  directly  resulted  in  the  continued  depre- 
ciation of  her  credited  claims.  This  statement  was 
made  by  a  representative  of  the  National  City  Bank  of 
New  York,  which  has  already  gained  an  influential 
standing  in  the  city  of  Montevideo. 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     277 

"Under  the  most  trying  conditions,"  continued  the 
American  banker,  "when  Argentina  and  Brazil  did  not 
hesitate  to  reduce  their  foreign  debts  by  methods  which 
are  generally  familiar,  and  when  Uruguay  had  equal 
or  greater  provocation  to  follow  their  example,  the 
Oriental  Republic  arranged  for  the  settlement  of  its 
liabilities  in  full,  succeeding  at  the  same  time  in  keep- 
ing its  currency  uniformly  on  a  gold  basis." 

It  is  always  a  surprise  to  Americans  to  realise  that 
in  this  small  republic,  not  much  larger  than  Belgium, 
the  American  dollar  is  at  a  discount,  being  worth  three 
cents  less  than  the  Uruguayan  peso. 

To  be  sure  we  find  that  the  country  has  been  oc- 
casionally delinquent  in  meeting  its  obligations,  but  it 
has  managed  in  some  way  to  pay  its  debts  in  the  end. 
Its  chief  weakness,  which  is  repeatedly  shown,  lies  in 
the  tendency  to  encroach  on  the  revenues  which  are 
morally  destined  for  debt  payments,  to  the  end  that 
the  administration  may  be  able  to  carry  out  some  pro- 
gramme of  expenditure,  becoming  so  involved  in  the 
execution  of  these  optional  programmes  as  to  be  unable 
to  straighten  out  its  finances  without  temporarily  sus- 
pending its  payments. 

It  has  been  stated  that  Uruguay  is  statistically 
wealthy  but  economically  poor.  The  condition  of  its 
resources  can  only  be  realised  when  one  considers 
that  less  than  five  thousand  men  own  nearly  eighty  per 
cent  of  the  land,  and  one  hundred  individual  owners 
claim  approximately  an  equal  percentage  of  the  capital 
employed  in  business  enterprises  which  are  not  financed 
by  foreign  money.  Foreigners  in  this  republic  own 
forty  per  cent  of  the  land  and  the  business  capital,  and, 


278      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

as  is  the  case  in  Chile,  a  very  large  part  of  the  annual 
earnings  is  sent  to  foreign  lands,  subtracting  consider- 
ably from  the  country's  wealth. 

Here  in  Uruguay  moreover,  also  similarly  to  the 
condition  in  other  South  American  republics,  there 
is  noted  a  feeling  of  uncertainty  and  what  is  spoken  of 
by  foreign  business  men  as  "watchful  waiting/'  rela- 
tive to  launching  out  in  investments  because  of  the  fre- 
quent manifestations  of  the  government  to  encroach 
on  the  fields  customarily  reserved  for  private  initiative. 

The  economic  resources  of  the  country  lie  at  present 
largely  in  its  grazing  enterprises.  Uruguay  is  a  re- 
public which  gains  its  living  chiefly  by  its  cattle  and  its 
sheep.  Formerly  horses  were  also  reckoned  as  a  con- 
siderable item  of  wealth,  but  the  visitor  is  told  that 
during  the  various  revolutions  the  revolutionists  had 
the  habit  of  pre-empting  the  horses  as  a  part  of  their 
legitimate  gain,  thus  discouraging  the  enterprise. 

One  will  be  told  by  enthusiastic  Uruguayans,  who  by 
the  way  are  as  patriotic  and  loyal  to  their  state  as  are 
other  South  Americans,  that  there  are  many  manu- 
facturers here.  Some  will  tell  you  that  there  are  at 
least  one  thousand  different  firms  manufacturing  dif- 
ferent products,  but  when  closer  investigation  is  car- 
ried on  in  relation  to  these  matters,  it  will  be  discovered 
that  the  enterprises  are  usually  small  and  compara- 
tively insignificant.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  because  of  the 
lack  of  native  iron,  lumber,  coal  and  other  fuel,  and  at 
present  raw  materials  of  any  kind,  except  wool,  hides, 
beef,  tallow,  and  an  uncertain  quantity  of  wheat  and 
corn,  manufacturing  industries  are  handicapped  here; 
they  can  be  carried  on  only  under  artificial  stimulus. 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     279 

Because  of  the  fact  also  that  cattle  and  beef-raising 
require  the  use  of  large  areas,  small  farms  are  sel- 
dom seen,  and  the  small  immigration  gives  no  imme- 
diate promise  for  the  likelihood  of  dividing  up  the 
land  sufficiently  to  make  desirable  holdings  on  a  small 
scale  by  immigrants. 

I  asked  a  prominent  member  of  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  the  first  need  of  Uruguay. 

He  answered,  "Population.  We  have  a  country 
that  could  feed  ten  million,  and  we  have  only  a  million 
and  a  half." 

It  probably  lies  near  the  truth  to  say  that  the  fear 
of  revolutions  has  been  one  of  the  causes  in  preventing 
a  flow  of  immigrants  into  Uruguay  in  any  such  man- 
ner as  they  have  gone  to  Argentina.  This  fear  is  now 
groundless. 

At  present  about  ninety  per  cent  of  all  the  indus- 
tries in  the  republic  originate  in  the  raising  of  sheep 
and  cattle,  which  activities  are  responsible  for  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  exports,  establishing  the  basis  upon 
which  ninety  per  cent  of  the  business  of  the  country  is 
built.  It  seems  at  first  strange  to  the  foreigner  to 
realise  that  Uruguay  exports  practically  everything 
that  it  produces  and  imports  virtually  everything  that 
it  consumes.  Transportation  is  greatly  needed  to  fur- 
ther the  development  of  trade  and  wealth.  The  rail- 
ways cover  fairly  well  the  productive  territory,  but 
there  is  still  great  need  within  the  districts  which  now 
embrace  them  for  further  transportation;  especially 
is  there  need  of  good  wagon  roads  as  feeders  for  rail- 
ways; the  government  is  showing  signs  of  recognising 
this  need. 


280     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  thoughtful  economist  will  tell  you  that  the  coun- 
try needs  a  large  number  of  roads  built  right  and  left 
up  and  down  through  the  territory,  but  even  this  im- 
provement will  be  almost  useless  until  a  source  of  live* 
lihood  in  small  farms  can  be  assured  for  the  population. 

Notwithstanding  its  handicaps,  Uruguay  has  been 
p§culiarly  prosperous,  though  foreign  business  men 
seem  to  think  that  this  prosperity  has  reached  its  limit 
unless  aggressive  measures  are  employed  to  secure  a 
larger  number  of  inhabitants  and  provide  them  with 
the  facilities  with  which  to  live  and  to  work. 

The  following  description  of  the  economic  and  in- 
dustrial life  of  the  country  was  given  to  me  by  a  keen 
student  of  Uruguay's  finances : 

"Take  part  of  the  cattle-raising  section  of  Texas, 
covering  an  area  as  big  as  the  State  of  Nebraska,  with 
more  or  less  the  same  population;  put  one-third  of  the 
population  in  Omaha,  and  then  surround  the  whole 
country  with  a  wall.  Require  the  people  either  to  pro- 
duce locally  everything  they  need  with  no  resources  on 
which  to  work  or  bring  it  in  from  other  countries  at 
an  additional  cost  equal  to  a  freight  haul  of  6,000 
miles  and  customs  charges  of  one  kind  or  another,  or 
about  fifty  per  cent  of  the  landed  cost.  Add  extra 
large  profits  demanded  in  order  to  offset  a  string  of 
internal  taxes  and  costs  of  operating  on  long  term 
credits,  and  to  keep  up  a  system  of  'small  sales  and 
large  profits,'  as  distinguished  from  a  system  of  'large 
sales  and  small  profits.'  Add  a  condition  where  five 
thousand  persons  own  nearly  everything.  Top  it  off 
with  a  public  debt  of  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lion, an  army  and  a  navy,  a  diplomatic  service,  and  an 
uncontrollable  desire  to  own  all  the  public  utilities 
of  the  country.     Considering  the  credit  standing  of 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     281 

Nebraska,  with  none  of  the  handicaps  mentioned,  one 
marvels  how  Uruguay  succeeds  in  laying  claim  to  the 
adjective  'prosperous.'  " 

There  is  a  demand  naturally  in  Uruguay  for  capital 
and  labour,  but  the  labour  problem  has  not  assumed 
large  proportions  as  yet  beyond  the  practically  simple 
requirements  of  pastoral  pursuits.  The  need  of  capital 
has  not  been  so  easily  satisfied,  and  the  result  has  been 
that  a  large  part  of  the  country's  activities  is  carried 
forward  on  credit.  It  is  this  matter  of  credit  which 
constitutes  at  present  the  chief  potential  menace  to  the 
finances  of  this  government.  As  regards  the  condi- 
tion of  the  country's  currency  the  following  statement 
of  a  prominent  foreign  banker  in  Montevideo  is  il- 
luminating : 

"The  Banco  de  la  Republica,  owned  by  the  republic, 
is  the  only  bank  of  issue.  It  is  required  to  maintain  a 
gold  reserve  of  forty  per  cent  of  its  circulation,  that 
is  to  say,  for  every  dollar  in  paper  in  circulation  it 
must  have  in  its  vaults  forty  cents  in  gold,  and,  con- 
versely, for  every  dollar  in  gold  which  lies  in  its  vaults 
it  may  print  $2.50  in  paper.  Having  printed  $2.50  in 
paper,  it  may  put  that  much  in  circulation,  and  the  only 
practical  way  in  which  this  may  be  accomplished  is  by 
lending  it.  In  practice,  under  normally  good  condi- 
tions, there  is  nothing  questionable  about  this  proce- 
dure, but  conditions  of  Uruguay  are  not  continuously 
good. 

"In  a  broad  way,  Uruguay  has  no  capital  of  its  own, 
and  must  draw  on  the  savings  of  Europe  for  its  fi- 
nancing.    The  bank,  which  extends  credit  accommoda- 


282      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tion,  operates  largely  on  these  European  savings,  and 
mercantile  credits  accorded  in  Europe  are  based  on 
these.  Under  favourable  conditions,  the  exports  from 
Uruguay  more  than  offset  the  imports  into  the  country, 
but  the  balance  of  trade  is  wiped  out  by  service  pay- 
ments on  the  Government's  foreign  indebtedness,  and 
the  transfer  of  dividends  on  foreign  investments.  Oc- 
casionally, therefore,  gold  must  be  shipped.', 

By  examining  the  revenues  in  this  country  one  finds 
that  the  revenues  from  importations  consisting  of  the 
basic  receipts  and  additional  taxes,  bearing  a  variety 
of  names,  including  so-called  Consular  fees,  consump- 
tion taxes  on  imported  food,  etc.,  represent  between 
fifty  and  fifty-five  per  cent  of  the  value  of  imports,  and 
close  to  sixty-five  per  cent  of  all  revenue.  Every  mil- 
lion dollars'  worth  of  imports  means  something  like 
$600,000  in  the  government  revenues,  and  when  a  con- 
dition arises  which  results  in  a  loss  of  one  million 
dollars  in  imports,  there  is  a  drain  of  over  $600,000 
on  the  government  treasury. 

This  inter-relation  of  the  finances  of  Uruguay  with 
European  conditions  throws  the  republic  almost 
entirely  upon  the  stability  or  instability  of  European 
finances,  and  disturbances  across  the  water  result  au- 
tomatically in  the  tightening  of  credit  in  Uruguay. 
As  one  has  stated  it,  "In  the  ordinary  course  of  events, 
a  pistol  shot  in  the  Balkans  means  a  failure  in  the 
River  Plate,  and  that  same  pistol  shot  may  play  an  im- 
portant part  in  affecting  the  government's  ability  to 
meet  its  obligations." 

In  summary,  therefore,  it  may  be  stated  that  the 
economic  conditions  in  this  highly  self-respecting  re- 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS     283 

public  circle  about  the  resources  comprised  in  sheep 
and  cattle  raising,  a  high  gold  standard  of  currency, 
and  ability  thus  far  to  secure  credit  in  Europe  espe- 
cially, with  a  consequent  dependence  upon  European 
conditions  for  continued  prosperity.  The  only  method 
by  which  it  would  seem  that  Uruguay  can  free  her- 
self from  her  present  handicap  would  be  in  provid- 
ing conditions  for  a  comparatively  large  immigration, 
through  certain  divisions  of  land  holding  and  the 
building  of  country  roads,  which  would  make  feasible 
and  profitable  the  means  of  livelihood  for  a  greatly 
enlarged  circle  of  inhabitants. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE   MEN   OF   BRAZIL 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  spiritual  energy  in  the  Universe,  but 
it  is  not  palpable  to  us  until  we  can  make  it  up  into  a  man. 

Emerson. 

AMONG  the  things  which  have  been  said  about 
the  greatest  republic  in  size  in  South  America, 
too  little  attention  has  been  given  to  the  Brazilian  him- 
self, his  personal  characteristics,  his  mental  attitude 
derived  from  inheritance  and  environments,  and  his 
general  point  of  view  of  life.  In  the  last  analysis 
it  is  the  man  of  the  country  that  counts.  His  institu- 
tions are  but  reflections  of  him.  His  history  is  prac- 
tically his  biography,  and  success  in  trade  or  inter- 
national relations  depends  quite  as  largely  upon  a  clear 
and  thorough  understanding  of  the  point  of  view  and 
nature  of  the  people  with  whom  we  are  dealing  as  upon 
any  matters  of  trade. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  best  ways  to  discover  the  Bra- 
zilian is  through  his  own  interpretations  of  himself  to 
the  end  of  discovering  what  the  men  of  Brazil  think  of 
their  own  characteristics.  I  asked  quite  a  wide  circle 
of  inhabitants  for  distinctive  traits  among  their  con- 
temporaries. 

I  find  that  a  man  of  Brazil  is  spoken  of  as  "a  per- 

284 


THE  MEN  OF  BRAZIL  285 

son  born  in  Brazil  no  matter  what  may  have  been  the 
nationality  of  his  parents." 

He  is  a  man  also  who  does  not  lay  stress  upon  the 
colour  line  and  who  is  taken  upon  his  worth  rather  than 
the  colour  of  his  skin.  He  is  a  descendant  of  a  race 
mixture  in  which  the  Indian  and  Portuguese  form  the 
main  ingredients,  while  in  certain  parts  of  Brazil  the 
Negro  strain  is  quite  pronounced.  The  man  of  Brazil 
is  a  good  business  man  particularly  when  in  business 
for  himself,  though  he  is  not  regarded  as  equally  ef- 
ficient in  industrial  concerns  as  the  American  when  it 
comes  to  organisation  and  rendering  service  in  large 
corporations  or  government  enterprises. 

The  Brazilian  is  a  man  of  friendship  and  he  is  in- 
clined to  devote  even  business  and  practical  matters  to 
this  sentiment.  He  is  generous  to  a  fault  and  hospit- 
ably inclined. 

While  the  religion  of  the  man  of  Brazil  is  Catholic, 
with  some  indications  of  Positivism,  which  at  the  time 
of  the  forming  of  the  republic  was  a  strong  element  in 
the  country,  the  male  portion  of  the  inhabitants  are 
at  present  more  or  less  indifferent  to  religion. 

Politics  take  a  large  place  in  the  Brazilian's  life, 
and  the  law  schools,  which  combine  the  college  and 
university  training,  are  perhaps  the  most  popular  in- 
stitutions of  the  country.  As  an  orator,  poet,  literary 
person,  with  an  especially  strong  penchant  for  acquir- 
ing languages,  the  Brazilian  is  noteworthy.  In  dress 
he  is  scarcely  to  be  excelled,  in  politeness  and  cour- 
tesy he  can  usually  give  suggestions  to  Americans  and 
the  Anglo-Saxon  generally,  while  his  devotion  to  the 


286      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

home,  his  chivalry  toward  his  women,  and  hic  love  of 
pleasure  and  amusement,  are  distinctive  traits. 

The  general  attitude  of  the  Brazilian  of  the  higher 
class  was  quite  clearly  revealed  to  me  through  an  in- 
terview with  a  large  coffee  planter. 

Joaquin  de  Souza-Queiroz  is  the  scion  of  one  of  the 
oldest  aristocratic  Portuguese  families  of  Brazil,  whose 
large  coffee  "facendo"  at  Campinos  is  one  of  the  old- 
est coffee  farms  of  this  republic.  Sr.  Souza-Queiroz 
was  educated  in  England,  France  and  Germany,  and  in 
personal  appearance,  attitude  of  mind,  and  social  stand- 
ing, represents  excellently  the  type  of  the  wealthy  cof- 
fee-class Brazilian. 

I  first  met  this  personage  on  his  coffee  farm  in  the 
State  of  Sao  Paulo  in  an  old  baronial-like  mansion, 
looking  far  away  over  rolling  estates  which  were 
clothed  with  a  half  million  coffee  trees,  at  the  time  in 
full  bloom.  This  coffee  planter,  like  others  of  his 
clan,  spends  several  months  of  each  year  on  his  estate, 
dividing  his  time  usually  in  three-fold  measure  be- 
tween his  coffee  farm,  the  city  of  Sao  Paulo  and  Eu- 
rope. The  habit  of  spending  four  or  five  months  in 
continental  capitals — Paris,  Nice,  Rome  and  Berlin — 
especially  in  Paris,  is  considered  the  correct  life  of  the 
men  of  wealth  and  family  here  in  Sao  Paulo. 

When  asked  if  he  had  ever  visited  Egypt  or  the 
Far  East  he  replied,  "No,  I  have  always  thought 
that  I  would  see  Constantinople,  Cairo  and  Russia, 
but  somehow,  when  I  get  to  Paris  and  the  other  cities 
of  France  and  Italy,  my  four  or  five  months  abroad 
pass  quickly  and  I  never  seem  to  have  the  time  or  the 
inclination  to  go  elsewhere.', 


THE  MEN  OF  BRAZIL  287 

Despite  the  fact  that  our  Brazilian  gentleman  was 
educated,  in  part,  in  England,  where  he  learned  to 
speak  English  very  well,  he  has  never  visited  the 
United  States,  and  knows  North  America  only  through 
its  representatives  who  have  made  flying  visits  to 
Brazil,  and  through  acquaintance  with  business  men 
from  America  who  have  elected  to  make  the  Bra- 
zilian republic  their  home.  Sr.  Souza-Queiroz's  fam- 
ily acted  as  hosts  for  Col.  Roosevelt  when  he  visited 
Brazil,  and  the  former  President,  together  with  Elihu 
Root,  were  the  two  public  men  of  North  America 
whom  our  Brazilian  coffee  planter  had  met  and  ad- 
mired, and  whose  remarks  he  quoted  frequently. 

We  asked  why  he  had  not  visited  the  United  States. 
To  which  question  he  answered : 

"I  suppose  it  is  because  we  think  of  the  United 
States  as  a  new  country,  something  like  our  own,  and 
we  Brazilians  are  naturally  interested  in  the  Old 
World,  which  is  our  mother  country.  We  are  inter- 
ested in  its  art,  its  history,  its  old  buildings  and  its 
music."  Then  laughingly  he  continued,  uYou  know 
we  Brazilians  don't  spend  all  of  our  time  in  the  Pa- 
risian cafes  throwing  gold  coins  to  the  dancers  as  we 
are  reported  sometimes  to  do.  Personally  I  like  to 
go  to  the  Louvre  and  to  the  Luxembourg  and  spend 
hours  among  the  old  masters.  It  is  furthermore  a 
characteristic  of  our  Latin  temperament  to  be  pas- 
sionately fond  of  music,  and  we  go  to  the  Old  World 
for  these  things.  We  feel  that  you  in  America  have 
eclipsed  us  in  material  achievements,  but  many  of  us 
do  not  consider  these  achievements  so  highly  as  you 
do;  we  admire  the  artistic  and  the  literary  side  of 


288      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

life,  therefore  we  go  to  those  places  where  we  think 
we  can  more  easily  satisfy  our  predominating  inclina- 
tions." 

However,  we  found  our  coffee  lord  deeply  interested 
in  America  and  eager  to  ask  all  kinds  of  questions  re- 
garding customs  in  the  United  States  which  seemed 
strange  to  the  Brazilian.  For  example,  in  speaking 
of  the  Roosevelt  visit  we  found  that  he  was  especially 
impressed  with  an  incident  connected  with  the  Colonel's 
son,  Kermit,  who  at  that  time  was  working  quietly  as 
an  engineer  in  Brazil.  One  morning  Mr.  Roosevelt 
said  that  he  was  going  to  take  breakfast  with  his  son, 
and  for  the  first  time  it  was  learned  by  this  Brazilian 
family  that  our  Ex-President  had  a  son  in  Brazil. 

"The  thing  that  seemed  unusual  to  us,"  he  said, 
"was  that  a  son  of  a  former  President  of  the  United 
States  could  be  down  here  working  quietly,  'on  his 
own,'  as  a  business  man,  and  no  one  knowing  about 
it,  and  especially  asking  no  favours  on  the  strength  of 
his  father's  reputation. 

"Why,"  said  he,  "the  sons  of  our  rulers  would  never 
dream  of  taking  up  careers  like  this.  When  they  work 
at  all,  they  choose  vocations  of  diplomacy,  but  many 
of  them,  in  fact  the  great  majority  of  them,  seem 
to  inherit  the  Brazilian  disinclination  to  work,  pre- 
ferring rather  the  gentleman's  life  of  ease  and  an 
assured  social  standing." 

Although  this  Brazilian,  like  others  of  his  class, 
seemed  to  be  a  bit  predisposed  to  the  empire  form  of 
government,  this  independent  characteristic  of  Amer- 
ican young  manhood  to  work  out  its  own  salvation  re- 
gardless of  family  connection,  impressed  him  favour- 


THE  MEN  OF  BRAZIL  289 

ably.  Being  a  comparatively  young  man,  he  reveals 
the  characteristics  of  the  mingled  sentiment,  divided 
about  equally  between  a  love  for  the  imperial  manner 
of  life  and  the  new  republican  ideals  which  are  con- 
stantly gaining  ground  in  this  republic. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  present  civilisation 
of  Brazil  is  highly  tinctured  with  the  characteristics 
and  standards  of  those  three  hundred  high  class  Por- 
tuguese families  which  the  old  King  of  Portugal 
brought  with  him  to  this  new  land,  and  of  which  an- 
cestry the  gentleman  Brazilian  is  especially  proud. 
The  visitor  will  be  told  repeatedly  that  Brazil,  unlike 
certain  other  South  American  republics,  was  not  set- 
tled by  a  lot  of  adventurers,  but  that  she  was  favoured 
in  having  the  best  blood  of  Portugal  transferred  bodily 
to  this  country  as  a  foundation  of  her  institutions  and 
civilisation. 

I  remarked  that  the  old  families  of  Brazil  are  said 
to  be  very  exclusive  and  that  one  is  told  it  is  very  dif- 
ficult for  a  foreigner  to  gain  access  to  their  homes,  that 
they  live  among  themselves,  intermarry,  and  form  al- 
most a  feudal-like  society. 

"We  do  this  largely  for  self  protection,"  was  the 
reply.  "We  want  to  keep  the  Brazilian  type,  and  the 
Brazilian  ideals  and  blood  as  pure  as  possible.  If 
every  one  intermarried  with  the  other  nationalities  of 
the  country,  the  distinctive  Brazilian  would  tend  to 
be  lost,  as  we  think.  We  want  to  keep  the  compara- 
tively few  Brazilian  families  of  old  Portuguese  stock 
true  to  the  ancient  traditions;  we  have  pride  in  these 
traditions.     Furthermore,  we  want  to  be  ourselves." 

The  truth  of  our  friend's  statement  was  exempli- 


290      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

fied  recently  in  the  city  of  Sao  Paulo  when  the  son  of 
one  of  the  old  Brazilian  families  married  the  daughter 
of  an  Italian  multi-millionaire.  The  young  man  paid 
for  his  independence  of  spirit  by  being  practically  os- 
tracised from  his  family,  his  club,  and  from  all  social 
life  in  Sao  Paulo.  This  social  exclusion  is  also  apparent 
at  the  best  clubs  in  this  section.  At  the  Automobile 
Club  of  Sao  Paulo,  for  example,  one  of  the  most  dig- 
nified and  well  appointed  organisations  of  its  kind  to 
be  found  in  the  country,  a  most  careful  surveillance 
is  kept  over  the  membership.  While  there  are  a  few 
select  foreigners  who  are  members,  the  old  Brazilian 
families  predominate,  and  these  members  will  give 
at  length  and  apologetically  the  reasons  why  these 
foreigners  are  considered  eligible.  Furthermore,  these 
Portuguese-Brazilians  who  will  meet  the  foreign  club 
members  at  their  social  clubs,  rarely  think  of  inviting 
them  to  their  homes.  It  is  a  comparatively  rare  thing 
for  a  foreign  business  man  to  be  able  to  say  that  he  has 
been  a  guest  within  the  exclusive  Brazilian  home. 
In  travelling  in  many  countries  we  have  been  fre- 
quently amused  and  amazed  at  the  social  importance 
which  dominates  the  minds  of  every  one  concerning  the 
value  of  acquaintanceship  with  the  few  great  families. 
In  no  country  have  we  found  the  social  register  so  well 
learned  by  heart  and  so  often  quoted  as  it  is  in  Brazil. 
Even  the  hard-headed  American  business  man,  after  a 
few  months  in  this  republic,  becomes  an  animated 
"Who's  Who"  of  information  concerning  the  families 
who  reign  in  his  local  social  world.  Quite  likely  in 
Oshkosh  he  never  knew  nor  cared  whether  Maria 
Jones  married  Josiah  Smith,  but  here  he  knows  to  a 


OF  THE  BEAUTIFUL  AVENUES  OF  ROYAL  PALMS  IN  RIO  DE  JANEIRO 


THE  MEN  OF  BRAZIL  291 

nicety  why  Dolores  Pintado  married  into  the  Quietado 
family. 

Here  in  Sao  Paulo  the  Paulistas,  as  the  inhabitants 
of  this  state  are  called,  consider  themselves  as  form- 
ing the  community  elite  of  Brazil.  Even  Rio  is  to 
them  a  bit  inferior  and  socially  undesirable.  In  fact, 
when  we  left  Sao  Paulo  en  route  for  the  beautiful  Bra- 
zilian capital,  we  were  quite  inclined  to  expect  that  we 
would  meet  none  but  mulattos  as  the  proud  Paulista 
had  so  often  insinuated  to  us  that  the  inhabitants  of 
Rio  de  Janeiro  had  been  so  careless  about  their  associa* 
tion  with  the  negroes,  that  one  must  say  au  revoir 
in  Sao  Paulo  to  the  really  white  Brazilian.  One  findsv 
of  course,  that  this  is  not  the  truth  about  the  popula- 
tion of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  although  the  farther  north  one 
travels  in  Brazil,  the  greater  is  the  preponderance  of 
the  gentleman  of  colour,  until  in  certain  towns  in  the 
Amazon  section,  the  traveller  might  almost  imagine 
that  he  was  visiting  a  city  of  the  Black  Belt  of  the 
Southern  States. 

We  next  asked  Sr.  Souza-Queiroz  how  the  republican 
ideas  were  working  out  in  Brazil. 

The  answer  revealed  the  pride  of  the  Brazilian 
in  being  an  inhabitant  of  the  only  South  American  re- 
public that  can  boast  of  having  descended  from  a  real 
American  empire. 

"Our  Constitution  was  modelled  upon  that  of  the 
United  States,"  was  the  reply,  "with  certain  modifica- 
tions taken  from  the  Constitution  of  Argentina.  Its 
present  weakness  exists  in  the  fact  that  it  was  taken 
over  whole  and  without  sufficient  regard  to  the  par- 
ticular character  of  Brazil's  population  and  her  con- 


292      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

sequent  divergent  needs.  The  republican  idea  works 
well  here  in  Sao  Paulo  where  the  state  is  modernised 
and  where  the  citizenship  is  largely  educated.  But 
there  are  many  other  states  in  Brazil  where  conditions 
are  less  advanced,  and  where  the  negroes  and  the  unedu- 
cated element  were  given  the  same  rights  and  laws,  for 
the  execution  of  which  they  were  not  prepared.  In 
other  words,  certain  sections  were  given  a  constitu- 
tion too  soon.  As  a  consequence  we  have  much  polit- 
ical manipulation  and  what  you  in  the  United  States 
call  'graft.'  In  the  days  of  the  Brazilian  empire, 
furthermore,  our  diplomatic  prestige  was  excellent 
throughout  the  world.  Of  course,  we  can  not  tell  what 
this  would  have  been  had  the  empire  continued,  but  it 
is  apparent  that  we  have  not  advanced  greatly  in  this 
regard  since  we  became  a  republic." 

Even  this  modern  Brazilian  who  had,  of  course, 
never  personally  known  the  late  Emperor,  shared  in 
the  love  and  veneration  which  is  found  commonly, 
especially  among  the  old  aristocratic  classes  in  this 
country,  for  Dom  Pedro  II,  who  held  this  country  in 
his  firm  hand  for  so  many  years.  This  sentiment  one 
finds  is  not  confined  to  the  old  families  for  whose  ad- 
vantage the  empire  existed,  but  the  common  people  and 
the  older  foreign  residents  will  tell  the  visitor  to-day 
that,  when  the  old  Emperor  was  exiled,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  take  him  away  in  the  middle  of  the  night, 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  people,  who  it  was  feared 
would  rise  en  masse  to  keep  their  beloved  ruler  in  the 
country.  You  will  be  told  also  that  when  Dom 
Pedro  died  he  asked  to  have  some  Brazilian  earth 
sprinkled  over  his  grave,  and  his  former  loyal  subjects 


THE  MEN  OF  BRAZIL  293 

vied  with  each  other  in  their  desire  to  fulfil  his  last 
request.  * 

"What  attitude  does  Brazil  take  regarding  the  re- 
cent Mexican  complication  with  the  United  States?" 
we  inquired. 

The  answer  revealed  in  substance  the  attitude  which 
one  finds  in  most  of  the  South  American  republics. 

"You  must  remember  always,"  said  the  Brazilian, 
"that  we  are  Latins,  and  our  sympathies  go  naturally 
with  the  Latin  people  wherever  they  are  found.  We 
recognise,  however,  that  many  Brazilians  as  well  as 
Americans  have  suffered  business  losses  by  reason  of 
the  unsettled  condition  in  Mexico.  Yet  the  attempt 
by  the  United  States  to  intervene  and  control  Mexican 
affairs  would  be  looked  upon  here  with  certain  sus- 
picion and  regret." 

When  asked  about  his  opinion  concerning  the  Mon- 
roe Doctrine,  our  Sefior  was  most  emphatic  in  the 
statement  that  the  attitude  of  the  United  States  rela- 
tive to  the  "A.  B.  C."  diplomacy  was  greatly  pleasing 
to  Brazilians. 

"This  willingness  to  advise  with  Brazil  concerning 
the  Mexican  matter  has  been,"  said  he,  "the  greatest 
factor  in  recent  years  to  dispose  favourably  the  people 
of  my  country  towards  the  'States/  It  is  this  kind 
of  treatment  of  us  by  your  country  that  helps  to  make 
friends  for  you  here  in  Brazil." 

When  we  came  to  the  discussion  of  the  home  and 
women,  the  characteristic  attitude  of  the  Brazilian,  as 
well  as  that  of  most  of  the  South  Americans,  was  ap- 
parent. Few  things  are  more  impregnable  to  the  for- 
eigner than  the  Orientalism  of  the  South  American 


294      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

states  relative  to  women.  Here,  as  in  the  East,  the 
woman  occupies  a  world  apart.  She  reigns  in  the  home 
supremely,  but  outside  of  the  family  circle  she  has 
little  or  no  place.  Women  in  business,  and  women  in 
politics,  or  leaders  of  social  movements  are  scarcely 
known  as  yet  in  Brazil,  though  in  Chile  and  Argentina 
one  will  find  women  as  clerks  and  stenographers  in 
business  houses  and  sometimes  in  the  banks.  In  Sao 
Paulo  we  saw  two  women  in  the  National  City  Bank 
as  employes;  one  was  English  and  the  other  a  Bel- 
gian, but  we  were  told  that  this  was  something  of  an 
innovation  in  southern  Brazil. 

"We  do  not  understand  the  customs  of  your 
women,"  said  my  Brazilian  friend.  "We  are  amazed 
at  their  independence  of  their  husbands  and  their  de- 
parture from  their  homes  and  their  children  to  compete 
with  men  in  business  and  in  world  affairs.  With  us 
our  women  are  our  home  keepers.  We  like  them  for 
their  feminine  charm,  their  softness,  their  beauty,  and 
those  qualities  which  are  the  opposite  to  the  masculine 
characteristics.  I  have  been  astonished  in  England, 
for  example,  to  see  the  women  working  and  competing 
with  men  in  offices  and  in  purely  mercantile  affairs.  I 
have  wondered  at  the  lack  of  chivalry  towards  women 
on  the  part  of  European  men.  It  seems  to  us  to  be  a 
condition  contrary  to  nature." 

My  Brazilian  aristocrat  then  went  on  to  narrate  an 
incident  of  an  American  lady  who  sought  an  introduc- 
tion to  him  in  Paris  because  members  of  his  family 
had  certain  intimate  knowledge  of  the  coffee  market 
in  the  State  of  Sao  Paulo. 

"The  American  lady,"  said  he,  "wanted  me  to  give 


THE  MEN  OF  BRAZIL  295 

her  what  she  called  'tips'  on  the  coffee  market.  She 
wanted  to  invest  in  coffee  stock.  I  asked  her  if  her  hus- 
band knew  of  her  investments.  'Oh,  no/  she  replied; 
'he  is  a  manufacturer,  and  interested  in  entirely  dif- 
ferent lines.  I  have  my  own  money  and  am  doing  this 
on  my  own  responsibility.' 

"As  a  matter  of  fact,"  said  he,  "I  learned  later  that 
this  lady  lost  several  thousand  francs  in  her  coffee 
speculation.  All  this  seems  quite  strange  to  us  here, 
where  it  is  the  custom  to  care  for  women,  and  relieve 
them  of  all  worldly  cares  and  perplexities  about  busi- 
ness affairs. 

"We  like  to  come  home  from  our  business  to  find  a 
different  life  in  the  home,"  he  continued.  "We  like 
to  work  simply  in  order  to  live;  we  do  not  live  to 
work,  and  we  never  carry  our  business  to  our  homes 
from  the  office  any  more  than  we  would  think  of  doing 
business  in  our  clubs  or  over  our  social  dinner  tables. 
Pleasure  takes  a  larger  place  with  us  evidently  than 
it  does  with  you.  We  want  life  that  is  as  full  as  pos- 
sible of  enjoyment  and  of  ease,  life  that  is  associated 
with  delights.  We  are  temperamentally  a  romantic 
people,  and  the  moment  women  fail  to  give  us  ro- 
mance, they  lose  for  us  their  charm.  Therefore  the 
less  that  business  or  things  relating  to  practical  affairs 
are  brought  into  our  homes  and  into  our  conversation 
and  relationship  with  women,  the  better  it  suits  us." 

The  generally  universal  sympathies  which  one  finds 
at  present  in  Brazil  for  the  cause  of  the  Allies,  led  me 
to  ask  the  reason  for  this  pro-Ally  allegiance. 

"We  love  France,"  was  the  reply.  "Here  again 
the  strain  of  blood  and  Latin  loyalties  are  powerful. 


296      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Furthermore,  the  Brazilian  ties  to  Portugal,  together 
with  a  large  number  of  Italians  in  Brazil,  add  to  the 
preponderance  of  national  sympathy  for  the  arms  of 
the  Allies. 

"At  the  same  time,"  said  Sr.  Souza-Queiroz,  "there 
are  many  reasons  why  we  in  Brazil  should  favour  the 
Germans.  We  have  never  had  any  diplomatic  con- 
troversies with  Germany  as  we  have  had  with  England 
and  the  United  States.  We  have  excellent  colonies 
of  Germans  in  our  country.  These  people  have  showed 
peculiar  adaptation  to  us  in  commercial  ways.  There 
are  certain  imperial  sympathies  with  Germany  still 
alive  here,  due  to  our  comparatively  recent  Brazilian 
empire.  Our  army  moreover  has  been  in  close  touch 
with  Gemany  both  in  training  and  in  the  use  of  Krupp 
guns  and  ammunition.  Many  people  also  think  here 
that  this  is  a  trade  war,  and  that  the  causes  lie  deep 
seatedly  in  commercial  competition  and  prejudice  and 
that  Germany  had  cause  to  fear  Russia's  preparation 
and  coalition  against  her  with  France  and  England.    , 

"Yet,  somehow,  we  do  not  like  the  Germans  in  these 
war  times,  and  this  is  not  because  we  care  for  the  Eng- 
lish specially,  for  favourable  sentiment  to  the  English 
is  not  universal  amongst  us.  The  English  have  never 
been  to  us  especially  'simpatico,'  either  in  their  will- 
ingness to  learn  our  language  or  to  adapt  themselves 
to  our  ways.  Yet,  our  Latin  temperament  rules  us; 
it  rules  us  often  against  our  judgment,  and  it  is  com- 
mon to  hear  it  said  here  in  Brazil  of  Germans  who 
have  formerly  held  high  positions  in  the  country,  'He 
is  a  German  !'  and  the  people  say  this  in  a  tone  which 
is  not  intended  to  be  complimentary.'' 


THE  MEN  OF  BRAZIL  297 

As  to  the  matter  of  the  outstanding  needs  of  Brazil 
at  present  in  the  way  of  immigration,  we  were  told 
by  this  Brazilian  that  in  his  judgment  the  country  was 
at  present  too  lax  in  its  immigration  laws,  that  Brazil 
let  any  one  and  every  one  come  into  the  country  quite 
regardless  of  their  character  or  the  particular  needs 
of  Brazil.  While  the  crying  need  of  the  republic  is 
for  population  and  capital,  there  are  many  of  the  older 
and  more  powerful  classes  who  fear  the  influx  of  a 
heterogeneous  herd  of  foreigners  from  various  na- 
tions who  do  not  understand  the  ways  and  the  spirit 
of  the  Latin  race.  In  other  words,  the  slogan  of  the 
conservative  loyalist  is,  "Brazil  for  the  Brazilians," 
a  modern  republic  to  be  sure,  but  one  differing  in  many 
ways  from  the  type  which  the  United  States  has 
learned  to  conceive  as  the  most  desirable.  It  is  above 
all  a  Latin  republic,  built,  in  part  at  least,  upon  im- 
perial sympathies  and  tinctured  with  a  strong  strain 
of  Orientalism,  influenced  deeply  by  heritage*,  climate 
and  traditions. 


CHAPTER  XX 

BRAZIL — AS  BRAZILIANS  SEE  HER 

Names  have  a  greater  importance  in  our  American  inter- 
course, than  figures  and  statistics — and  these  (statistics)  un- 
fortunately seem  to  be  the  only  branch  of  South  American 
literature  that  appeals  to  the  practical  mind  of  the  student  in 
North  America.  But  even  the  practical  mind  may  make  the 
mistake  of  entering  into  the  consideration  of  facts  without  a 
sufficient  knowledge  of  their  factors,  and  these  factors  bear 
names  or  have  names  connected  with  them. — Dr.  Domicio  da 
Gama,  the  Ambassador  of  Brazil  at  Washington. 

THE  Brazilian,  Dr.  Amaro  Cavalcanti,  has  been 
for  many  years  an  influential  factor  in  the  shap- 
ing and  development  of  this  newest  of  South  American 
republics.  He  was  one  of  the  men  selected  for  the 
preparation  of  a  new  Constitution  when  the  new  re- 
public was  inaugurated.  He  has  held  many  of  the 
highest  offices,  political,  judicial,  educational  and  diplo- 
matic, in  the  gift  of  his  country.  A  former  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Brazil;  the  general  Inspector  of 
Public  Education;  a  Federal  Senator;  the  Minister  of 
Justice  and  the  Interior;  Minister  Plenipotentiary; 
Councillor  for  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Relations;  dele- 
gate to  the  Third  International  Conference  in  Rio  de 
Janeiro  in  1906 — also  delegate  to  fhe  South  American 
Financial    Conference   at   Washington,    19 15 — Presi- 

298 


BRAZIL— AS  BRAZILIANS  SEE  HER      299 

dent  of  the  Brazilian  Society  of  International  Law, 
and  the  author  of  many  works  on  jurisprudence,  fi- 
nance, politics,  education  and  Pan-American  questions. 
He  is  at  present  the  Prefect  or  Mayor  of  Rio  de 
Janeiro. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  receive  from  Dr.  Caval- 
canti  a  most  frank  opinion  relative  to  the  present  needs 
and  conditions  in  Brazil.  It  was  my  special  desire 
to  get  this  gentleman's  opinion  relative  to  the  needs 
in  political  life  which  in  his  judgment  were  as  fol- 
lows: 

i.  Revenue  Reform. 

"It  is  necessary,"  said  this  Brazilian  judge,  "to  unify 
the  revenue  laws  so  that  the  revenues  of  the  various 
states  in  exports  and  imports  may  agree  more  nearly 
with  the  Government  or  Federal  revenues." 

2.  "Certain  revisions  of  the  Constitution  are  also 
needed,  especially  in  relation  to  the  election  laws  in 
the  States.  At  present  the  Governors  have  far  too 
much  control  in  their  own  hands  and  can  decide  their 
elections  through  their  partisan  appointees." 

According  to  Judge  Cavalcanti  the  abuses  of  the 
electorate  in  Brazil  constitute  the  chief  weakness  in 
this  republic  at  present. 

A  new  and  better  Civil  Code  has  been  introduced, 
taking  effect  in  19 17. 

It  was  also  stated  that  there  was  very  much  needed 
between  the  different  states  an  uniformity  of  judicial 
procedure  and  a  better  distribution  of  responsibilities 
between  the  States  and  the  Brazilian  Union.  It  is 
evident  that  many  of  the  problems  which  the  United 
States  of  America  has  had  to  fight  out  relative  to 


300      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

state  rights,  and  state  relationship  to  the  Union,  are 
arising  to-day  in  the  ever  enlarging  life  of  the  Bra- 
zilian Republic. 

In  relation  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  which  is  more 
or  less  a  common  subject  of  conversation  in  this  part 
of  the  world,  Dr.  Cavalcanti  stated  that  those  who 
seemed  eager  to  give  the  impression  that  Brazil  was 
prejudiced  against  this  doctrine,  were  not  well  in- 
formed or  they  did  not  know  Brazilians. 

"You  must  remember,"  said  he,  "that  the  United 
States  first  recognised  the  independence  of  Brazil,  and 
since  that  time  there  has  never  been  hostility  on  the 
part  of  our  countrymen  towards  your  northern  re- 
public; on  the  contrary,  I  have  noted  throughout  the 
years,  since  republican  government  was  established 
here,  the  best  feeling  always  among  our  statesmen  rela- 
tive to  America.  Do  we  not  have  the  Palace  Monroe 
in  the  most  prominent  place  on  our  Avenida,  a  con- 
stant reminder  of  the  visit  of  Mr.  Elihu  Root?" 

Our  informant  suggested  that  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
might  need  modification  from  time  to  time,  but  that 
in  his  opinion  it  was  both  necessary  and  also  highly 
profitable,  mutually,  to  have  the  community  of  Amer- 
ican interests  maintained  as  a  unit.  He  also  stated 
that  he  had  given  many  times  his  unqualified  support 
to  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  that  he  had  subscribed 
to  the  A.  B.  C.  arrangement  with  an  idea  that  this 
would  be  an  added  force  united  with  America  to  main- 
tain such  a  unified  relationship. 

"If,"  said  he,  "the  A.  B.  C.  Powers  should  ever 
show  an  indication  of  becoming  a  force  against  force, 
or  showing  hostility  to  the   Pan-American  sentiment 


BRAZIL— AS  BRAZILIANS  SEE  HER      301 

which  I  strongly  hold,  I  should  feel  like  withdrawing 
entirely  my  support  from  them." 

I  asked  whether  religion  was  increasing  or  decreas- 
ing in  Brazil.  He  answered,  "During  the  empire  we 
had  a  state  religion.  When  the  republic  came  in, 
Church  and  State  were  separated.  The  result  has  been 
the  increase  rather  than  the  decrease  of  religious  inter- 
est. In  place  of  three  dioceses  then,  we  have  now 
thirty.  Protestant  Christianity  also  has  been  on  the 
increase  in  Brazil,  and  there  are  many  Brazilians  who 
have  accepted  actually,  if  not  outwardly,  many  of  the 
Protestant  positions." 

I  asked  relative  to  Positivism,  and  it  was  answered 
that  Benjamin  Constant,  who  was  a  teacher  in  the  mil- 
itary school  at  the  time  of  the  proclamation  of  the  re- 
public, took  a  large  part  in  this  movement.  Most  of 
his  disciples  were  army  officers,  as  he  was  also  Min- 
ister of  War.  This  revival  of  the  philosophy  of 
Auguste  Comte  occurred  twenty-five  years  ago,  and  at 
present  Positivism  is  a  diminishing  faith.  There  is 
one  church  of  this  movement  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  there 
being  only  one  other  of  importance  in  the  world,  that 
one  being  at  Liverpool. 

In  spite  of  the  statement  of  Dr.  Cavalcanti  regard- 
ing the  increase  of  religion  in  Brazil,  one  hears  fre- 
quently regarding  the  ignorance  as  well  as  the  im- 
morality of  many  of  the  priests,  who  are  devoid  of 
much  of  that  missionary  enthusiasm  which  actuated 
certain  of  their  predecessors. 

"What  are  the  reasons  for  the  Brazilians'  liking  for 
France?"  was  asked. 

"Was  it  on  general  principles,  such  as  Benjamin 


302     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Franklin  had  in  mind  when  he  said  that  every  man  had 
two  countries,  his  own  and  France,  or  were  there  spe- 
cial reasons  in  Brazil's  case  for  cleaving  naturally  to 
her  Latin  sister  across  the  sea?" 

It  was  answered  that  superior  education  came  to 
Brazil  from  French  books,  that  modern  text  books  on 
law,  engineering,  etc.,  were  not  to  be  had  in  Portu- 
guese. The  French  language  was  learned  by  all  edu- 
cated people  and  the  French  modes  of  thought  per- 
meated the  land.  Even  to-day  the  people's  popular 
reading  embraces  French  romances,  which,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  many  Brazilians,  is  not  an  unmixed  blessing. 

Two  decades  ago  English,  German  and  the  Italian 
language  became  popular,  the  English  language  espe- 
cially, and  the  one  hundred  students  from  Brazil  who 
are  now  studying  in  the  United  States,  especially  in  the 
engineering  schools,  are  helping  to  counteract  the 
French  influence. 

As  to  the  mixture  of  races  in  Brazil,  Dr.  Cavalcanti 
brought  out  the  fact  that  there  was  no  such  race  aver- 
sion in  this  country  as  existed  in  the  United  States. 
Men  are  accepted  in  politics,  for  example,  according 
to  what  they  have  done  and  are  doing,  rather  than  ac- 
cording to  their  colour.  It  was  stated  that  the  inter- 
marriage with  the  negro  in  Brazil  was  largely  on  the 
part  of  the  Portuguese  immigrant  and  labourer,  but 
that  the  best  and  educated  families  would  not  t'  ak.of 
giving  their  daughters  in  marriage  to  negroes. 

According  to  this  Brazilian  judge,  the  result  of  the 
marriage  between  the  blacks  and  whites  in  the  lower 
classes  in  Brazil  is  proving  beneficial  to  the  mulattoes, 
who  are  usually  stronger  physically  and  often  stronger 


__ — — — - 

i| 

h| 

\     lit  wit     .^ 

m----^  : 

AVENIDA  RIO  BRANCO— RIO  DE  JANEIRO,  BRAZIL 
A*  NOTABLE  AVENUE.  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA 


mmmp&*?m.:  IPP' 


If  1  i  J 


THE  BEAUTIFUL  BAY  OF  BOTAFOGA  AND  THE  CITY  OF  RIO  DE  JANEIRO  BY  NIGHT 
SHOWING  THE  PEAK  OF  CORCOVADO  IN  THE  DISTANCE  AT  AN 
ALTITUDE  OF  ABOUT  THREE  THOUSAND  FEET 


BRAZIL— AS  BRAZILIANS  SEE  HER       303 

mentally  than  either  of  their  parents.  It  is  thought 
by  many  of  the  educated  men  that  with  proper  time 
the  white  blood  will  dominate  over  the  negro  strain 
and  that  this  is  the  one  way  in  which  to  solve  the 
vexed  race  problem. 

"You  in  the  United  States,"  said  Dr.  Cavalcanti, 
"have  perhaps  even  a  greater  problem  before  you  in 
this  line,  but  it  is  my  opinion  that  you  will  best  solve 
it  by  allowing  your  immigrant  from  nations  which  have 
slight  or  no  aversion  to  the  negro,  to  make  the  mix- 
ture." 

I  wondered  what  would  be  the  effect  of  this  argument 
if  it  was  heralded  from  the  housetops  in  any  one  of  our 
Southern  States. 

Relative  to  education,  it  was  stated  that  the  lack 
of  schools  in  Brazil  were  due  to  the  lack  of  resources 
on  the  part  of  the  different  states.  There  was  also 
a  great  need  of  railroads  and  country  roads  in  general; 
it  is  very  difficult  to  send  children  to  the  towns  to  school 
since  these  towns  are  often  from  ten  to  fifty  miles  apart. 

I  suggested  that  if  there  was  a  better  administration 
of  Government  funds,  there  might  be  more  money  to 
spend  on  education,  which  in  the  elementary  stages 
is  at  present  lamentably  deficient  in  Brazil. 

This  was  frankly  admitted  and  it  was  also  stated 
that  the  exaggerated  love  for  politics  on  the  part  of 
Brazilians,  and  the  consequent  neglect  of  education, 
together  with  the  application  of  theoretical  knowledge 
to  industrial  enterprises,  constituted  a  tragic  weakness 
in  the  nation. 

It  was  stated  that  the  two  outstanding  characteris- 
tics of  this  country  were  a  love  for  peace  and  a  ten- 


304     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

dency  toward  an  intellectual  development  in  letters  and 
artistic  things  rather  than  a  liking  for  and  promotion 
of  the  practical  and  economic  life  of  the  country. 

"We  are  a  peace-loving  nation,"  said  he,  "we  de- 
test militarism.  We  have  had  only  one  war  and  that 
was  with  Paraguay  when  our  territory  was  invaded. 
Our  army  has  been  composed  of  a  voluntary  force 
for  the  most  part,  but  now  preparedness  and  war  are 
in  the  air,  and  every  boy  wants  to  be  a  soldier.  Such 
a  moment  will  pass;  our  national  character  and  our 
traditions  will  dispel  it." 

As  to  the  lack  of  practical  activities  on  the  part  of 
Brazilians,  it  was  thought  that  the  task  would  be  a 
somewhat  difficult  one  to  get  the  people  to  leave  tra- 
ditional channels  of  thought  and  apply  themselves  to 
industry  as  thoroughly  as  the  times  in  this  great  land  of 
rich  natural  resources  demanded. 

"You  in  America  say,  'How  can  we  make  a  living 
and  build  a  big  railroad?'  We  Latin  Americans  are! 
more  inclined  to  say,  'How  can  we  make  a  great  poet 
or  literary  man,  or  statesman,  and  at  the  same  time 
get  pleasure  out  of  life?'  " 

It  would  seem  to  be  in  the  bringing  into  personal 
contact  and  acquaintance  the  inhabitants  of  the  two 
Americas,  that  the  readiest  solution  of  "Pan-Amer- 
icanism" is  to  be  found.  I  have  heard  from  many  Bra- 
zilians the  conviction  voiced  by  the  Brazilian  ambas- 
sador to  the  United  States — "less  statistics  and  more 
friendly  association."  Reciprocal  personal  acquaintance 
and  the  study  of  the  men  and  the  methods  of  these 
two  Americas,  even  more  than  the  study  of  trade  re- 
ports, for  a  time,  would  be  a  promising  step  toward 


BRAZIL— AS  BRAZILIANS  SEE  HER      305 

mutual  understanding.  To  quote  again  from  the  Bra- 
zilian ambassador: 

"Unity,  community,  companionship,  all  presuppose 
affinity  of  ideals  at  least.  It  is  the  names  of  these 
men  which  we  ought  to  know  as  lasting  memorials  to 
the  courage  and  virtue  and  wisdom  and  civic  devotion 
that  made  them  immortal  among  their  own  people. 
Let  them  cross  their  frontiers  and  our  frontiers  and 
mingle  with  our  grandees  in  the  same  cult  of  moral 
beauty  that  exalts  the  mind  of  all  civilized  men.  And 
when  the  communion  of  esteem  and  admiration  for  the 
nation-makers  will  be  achieved,  when  names  like  Boli- 
var, O'Higgins,  San  Martin,  Sarmiento,  Ahdrada,  and 
Rio  Branco,  will  be  as  well  known  in  the  north  of  the 
continent  as  those  of  Franklin,  Washington  and  Lin- 
coln are  revered  in  the  South,  the  greater  part  of  the 
programme  of  Pan-Americanism  will  be  accomplished 
and  explained  by  itself." 

This  plea  for  liberalism  is  important  for  Brazil  to- 
day, and  it  is  no  less  important  for  the  success  of 
American  politics  and  commercial  policies  in  dealing 
with  this  republic. 

There  are  many  scores  of  Brazilian  names  which 
are  to-day  written  high  in  the  records  of  statesman- 
ship and  letters  especially,  and  among  these  is  that 
of  Dr.  Ruy  Barbosa — senator,  statesman,  diplomat, 
litterateur,  master  of  international  law  and  jurispru- 
dence, and  without  doubt  the  most  popular  orator  and 
writer  on  liberal  politics  in  present-day  Brazil. 

Next  to  the  name  of  Rio  Branco,  there  is  no  other 
name  found  more  frequently  upon  the  lips  of  the  pa- 
triotic Brazilian  than  that  of  Ruy  Barbosa.    He  is  the 


306     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

people's  idol.  Streets  of  Brazilian  cities  and  towns 
are  named  after  him;  one  or  more  Brazilian  steamers 
carries  his  name;  cigars  and  various  brands  of  mer- 
chandise are  called  "Ruy  Barbosa"  to  attract  public 
attention,  and  when  he  returns,  as  he  did  two  years 
ago  from  Argentina,  where  he  had  represented 
his  country  in  a  great  speech,  the  streets  of  Rio  de 
Janeiro  are  decorated  as  for  a  great  general  return- 
ing from  his  wars.  "Viva  Barbosa!"  was  taken  up  by 
voices  of  all  classes  of  people  as  they  crowded  the 
wharves  where  his  steamer  docked,  and  followed  him 
in  triumphal  procession  through  the  streets  of  the 
Federal  Capital. 

It  is  natural  that  any  one  who  would  study  Brazil 
to-day  should  wish  to  meet  and  talk  with  Dr.  Ruy 
Barbosa,  and  when  the  writer  found  himself  entering 
the  large  baronial-like  home  and  grounds  of  this  Bra- 
zilian statesman  in  the  city  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  it  was 
with  the  realisation  that  he  might  hope  to  discover 
certain  of  the  fundamental  ideas  and  ideals  of  the 
people  of  Brazil,  since  Dr.  Barbosa,  more  perhaps 
than  any  other  man  at  present  in  public  life,  speaks  out 
for  his  countrymen. 

I  was  met  in  the  great  library  by  a  small  man  with 
a  massive  head  covered  with  white  hair.  The  man 
who  greeted  me  with  typical  Brazilian  politeness  was 
sixty-seven  years  old,  born  in  Bahia  in  1849.  His  speak- 
ing acquaintance  with  many  languages  was  also  indica- 
tive of  the  cultured  Brazilian,  and  we  launched  at  once 
into  conversation  in  English,  concerning  the  political 
history  and  needs  of  Brazil. 

Dr.  Ruy  Barbosa  told  me  in  answer  to  my  question 


BRAZIL— AS  BRAZILIANS  SEE  HER      307 

regarding  the  advantage  of  the  republic  over  the 
Brazilian  empire,  how  he  had  advocated  a  federation 
with  the  empire  which  Dom  Pedro  II,  the  Emperor, 
accepted,  but  which  was  refused  by  the  political  lead- 
ers in  the  last  hours  of  the  empire;  this  act  made  the 
revolution  necessary  which  drove  the  royal  family  into 
exile.  In  this  statesman's  mind  the  transition  was  too 
abrupt  between  the  empire  and  the  republic  and  it 
had  been  his  plan  to  bring  in  a  democracy  through 
gradual  stages.  Those  who  study  modern  Brazil,  espe- 
cially in  the  states  of  the  north  and  the  interior,  where 
republican  forms  of  government  are  little  more  than 
a  name,  realise  to-day  the  far-sightedness  of  Dr.  Ruy 
Barbosa's  proposed  statesmanship.  The  condition  is 
not  dissimilar  to  that  which  existed  in  our  own  south- 
land shortly  after  the  Civil  War,  when  the  negroes 
were  entrusted  with  suffrage,  which  they  were  not  in 
the  least  prepared  to  employ. 

Knowing  that  in  a  recent  election  Dr.  Ruy  Barbosa 
was  the  people's  candidate  for  President,  I  asked  him 
concerning  the  ideals  which  prompted  him  in  becoming 
a  candidate.  It  is  generally  known  in  Brazil  that  in 
this  election  Ruy  Barbosa  received  the  majority  of 
votes,  but  in  spite  of  this  fact  his  opponent  secured 
the  office. 

"My  candidacy,"  said  he,  "was  not  of  my  own  choos- 
ing. It  originated  with  friends  of  mine  at  Sao  Paulo. 
It  was  to  me  a  most  interesting  and  encouraging  cam- 
paign, for  I  had  the  privilege  of  making  speeches 
throughout  the  country  and  getting  acquainted  with  the 
people  of  the  smaller  towns  and  cities.  These  people 
flocked  to  the  meetings  with  earnest  enthusiasm  and 


308     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

patriotic  sentiments.  They  wrote  me  letters  by  the 
hundreds,  and  I  was  encouraged  to  see  dawning  indi- 
cations of  republican  sentiments,  especially  amongst 
the  common  people,  which  I  had  heretofore  hardly 
dreamed  existed." 

"Of  course,  as  you  know,"  continued  the  Brazilian 
Senator,  "although  I  received  the  majority  of  votes 
and  was  really  elected,  politics  and  politicians  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  decreed  otherwise,  and  my  op- 
ponent, who  was  favoured  by  the  'machine,'  was  given 
the  office." 

To  my  question  as  to  the  political  reform  most 
needed  in  Brazil  to-day,  I  received  this  reply: 

"Political  reform  is  sorely  needed  in  my  country, 
better  laws  and  progressive  measures;  but  the  thing 
which  is  most  needed  of  all  is  men  who  will  execute 
these  laws.  It  is  not  so  much  increased  or  different 
legislation  which'  is  required  in  Brazil  to-day,  as  men 
of  integrity  and  character  in  office,  who  will  be  found 
capable  of  putting  into  effect  the  laws  which  we  al- 
ready have.  Politics  has  tampered  too  much  with  in- 
dustrial enterprises,"  said  he.  "Railroads  in  my  sec- 
tion in  Bahia,  for  example,  were  built  in  the  least  feas- 
ible places  in  order  to  favour  politicians,  and  the  con- 
cessions which  were  given  to  foreign  governments  were 
of  such  broad  and  general  nature  as  to  make  easy  the 
defrauding  of  the  Government  and  the  people  by  the 
foreign  syndicates  who  were  chiefly  interested  in  ex- 
ploiting the  country  and  getting  their  pay  for  miles 
of  railway  built,  regardless  of  the  needs  of  the  section 
through  which  these  roads  were  hurriedly  constructed. 
We  are  reaping  to-day  the  results  of  political  favourit- 


BRAZIL— AS  BRAZILIANS  SEE  HER      309 

ism  in  our  Brazilian  industries.  We  have  too  many 
men  living  on  the  Government.  We  have  too  few 
statesmen  of  large  and  unselfish  minds  who  are  really 
and  vitally  interested  in  Brazil  as  a  whole." 

I  found  this  Brazilian  statesman,  like  Judge  Caval- 
canti,  and  others  of  the  statesmen  with  whom  I  talked, 
generally  favourable  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  also 
thoroughly  familiar  with  North  American  affairs.  Dr. 
Barbosa  led  me  through  room  after  room  filled  with 
books  in  various  languages,  and  among  these  there 
were  literally  hundreds  of  volumes  in  English,  having 
to  do  with  politics  and  jurisprudence  in  the  United 
States  and  England.  I  found  him  thoroughly  famil- 
iar with  President  Wilson's  writings  on  the  history  of 
the  United  States  while  he  talked  of  our  present  day 
public  men  with  perfect  familiarity,  telling  me  of  his 
pleasure  in  having  them  at  different  times  as  his  guests, 
and  showing  me,  in  several  instances,  their  photographs 
which  had  been  autographed  by  their  owners  on  their 
visits  to  South  America. 

In  speaking  of  the  value  of  the  Brazilian  republic, 
he  said,  "Thus  far  the  republic  has  brought  to  us 
material  advantages  only;  other  things  which  have 
come  in  the  train  of  the  republic  are  not  especially 
praiseworthy." 

He  was  profoundly  convinced  that  the  Latin  Amer- 
icans were  worthy  of  being  taken  seriously  intellectu- 
ally, and  that  one  of  the  first  things  that  needed  atten- 
tion was  the  laying  of  firm  foundations  for  interna- 
tional law  as  well  as  fundamental  education  for  his 
people,  to  both  of  which  projects  Dr.  Barbosa  has 
contributed  notably.     It  was  this  statesman  who  in 


310      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

completing  his  civic  education  among  the  British  people 
wrote  the  "Letters  from  England,"  which  were  pub- 
lished in  1896  and  were  read  widely  by  Brazilians 
and  other  Latin  Americans. 

I  found  the  Senator  a  devotee  to  Carlyle,  especially 
to  Carlyle's  "Cromwell."  He  was  also  an  enthusiastic 
admirer  of  Anatole  France,  and  in  common  with  the 
Latin  Americans,  Dr.  Ruy  Barbosa  elevates  the  vir- 
tues of  sentiment  and  heart  quality  to  a  place  rarely 
given  to  them  among  political  leaders. 

This  heart  quality  of  Dr.  Ruy  Barbosa  impressed 
me  especially  and  was  brought  out  eloquently  in  his 
simple  and  genuine  home  life.  At  his  luncheon  table 
I  was  surrounded  by  his  children  and  grandchildren, 
as  he  holds  to  the  old  Brazilian  patriarchal  idea  of 
having  his  sons  and  daughters  with  their  families 
about  him  in  the  old  home.  During  the  luncheon  hour 
two  of  his  grandchildren  were  brought  into  the  room, 
and  for  the  time,  politics,  statesmanship  and  literature 
were  utterly  forgotten,  and  Dr.  Barbosa  was  lost  in 
the  admiration  of  his  children's  children.  He  had 
them  speak  pieces  for  me,  and  as  the  tiny  three-year- 
old  girl  waved  her  little  hands  and  cried,  "Viva,  Ganpa 
Ruy  Barbosa !"  in  imitation  of  the  crowds  which  she 
had  heard  cry  as  they  gathered  about  their  home,  the 
famous  Senator  was  overjoyed,  and  one  doubted 
whether  the  light  that  shone  in  the  veteran  states- 
man's eyes  could  have  been  duplicated  by  hearing  the 
huzzas  of  the  multitudes  who  had  followed  him  so 
often  down  the  crowded  Avenida  Rio  Branco. 

In  a  very  real  sense  Dr.  Ruy  Barbosa  incarnates  the 
spirit  of  chivalrous  idealism  of  his  race.     He  believes 


BRAZIL— AS  BRAZILIANS  SEE  HER       311 

thoroughly  in  the  ideal  of  a  future  international  peace 
which  will  cover  all  nations.  Like  many  of  his  coun- 
tryman, he  finds  it  difficult  to  devote  himself  solely  to  a 
utilitarian  regime.  To  him  wealth  and  political  power 
are  means  only  to  the  end  of  bringing  about  a  higher 
and  a  more  ideal  civilisation.  His  wealth  is  not  in 
great  piles  of  gold,  for  as  he  told  me,  he  still  finds  it 
necessary  to  practise  law  as  a  profession,  in  addition 
to  being  a  Senator  of  the  republic,  in  order  to  support 
the  large  family  dependent  upon  him.  To  Ruy  Bar- 
bosa  and  to  his  Brazilian  kind,  standing  at  the  pinnacle 
of  this  Latin  American  civilisation,  human  dignity  oc- 
cupies a  place  above  material  advantages,  and  the 
spirit  of  literature  and  art  are  to  these  men,  still,  more 
potent  than  worldly  aggrandisement  and  utilitarian 
success. 

A  French  writer  has  summed  up  well  the  character 
of  Dr.  Ruy  Barbosa : 

"He  is  a  man  of  imagination,  but  he  is  also  a  man 
of  will,  and  it  is  owing,  perhaps,  to  this  happy  harmony 
of  all  his  faculties  that,  throughout  his  life  he  has  been 
enabled  to  fill  a  mission  of  education  at  once  political, 
social,  and  purely  human." 

As  a  man  of  Brazil,  the  statesman  represents  in 
his  personality  and  work  the  combination  of  qualities 
which  the  union  of  the  traits  of  the  two  Americas 
might  produce — a  gentleman,  a  scholar,  a  successful 
man  of  affairs,  and  human  being  of  heart  quality  and 
rich  feeling. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

AUTOMOBILING  IN  BRAZIL 

A   LETTER  reaches  me  here  in  Rio  from  an  au- 
tomobile euthusiast  living  in  an  inland  city  in  the 
"States,"  reading  as  follows: 

"I  am  meditating  bringing  my  car  for  an  automobile 
trip  through  South  America.  I  have  an  ambition  to 
be  the  first  man  who  has  ever  crossed  South  America 
from  the  east  coast  of  Brazil  to  the  west  coast  of  Peru 
in  a  motor  car.  Please  give  me  your  opinion  as  to 
the  advisability  of  such  a  trip." 

I  hastened  to  reply  to  my  American  friend  that  no 
more  heroic  adventure  had  ever  been  planned  since  the 
days  of  Pizarro,  but  that  the  only  way  I  could  conceive 
of  his  crossing  Brazil  with  his  automobile  (from  Per- 
nambuco  to  La  Paz,  Bolivia,  for  example)  would  be  to 
suspend  it  to  a  German  Zeppelin,  or  possibly  take  his 
machine  apart,  and  with  Anne  Peck  and  Harry  Franck 
as  guides,  engage  a  half  hundred  Indians  to  carry  the 
whole  party  across  on  their  backs. 

After  a  few  months  of  travel  on  the  outskirts  of  this 
vast  country  which  is  called  frequently  a  continent, 
larger  in  area  than  the  United  States  or  three-fourths 
of  Europe,  with  enormous  interior  areas  still  unex- 

312 


AUTOMOBILING  IN  BRAZIL  313 

plored  and  uncharted  and  inhabited  by  savage  tribes, 
who  live  in  jungle  fastnesses  as  impregnable  as  any- 
thing to  be  found  in  Central  Africa,  the  most  ardent 
apostle  of  the  motor  car  loses  his  fire.  The  man  who 
would  cross  Brazil  to-day  from  east  to  west  would  find 
a  little  jaunt  awaiting  him  of  several  thousand  miles 
across  gigantic  tablelands  cut  with  irregular  mountain 
chains,  through  tropical  jungles  which  would  have 
to  be  penetrated  by  means  of  the  machete,  and  having 
for  a  "road  map,"  if  he  was  especially  fortunate,  a 
faint  and  often  vanishing  mule-track,  and  naught  more. 

Of  course,  this  might  be  accomplished  by  a  man 
whose  dictionary  did  not  contain  the  word  "impos- 
sible,"  but  personally  I  should  prefer  for  the  sake  of 
practice  to  run  my  car  over  the  Flatiron  Building  or 
across  the  Egyptian  Pyramids,  and  possibly  take  a  spin 
across  the  Sahara  desert.  The  average  traveller  after 
looking  over  the  situation  would  be  inclined  to  think 
it  more  salutary  and  expeditious  to  put  his  automobile 
on  a  slow  steamer  and  sail  to  the  West  Coast  via  Cape 
Horn. 

Firstly,  it  must  be  remembered  by  the  prospective 
auto-tourist  to  these  parts  that  there  are  no  interna- 
tional highways  in  South  America  such  as  those  "built 
by  the  Peruvian  Indians  in  the  palmy  sixteenth  century 
days  of  the  ancient  Incas,  before  Spanish  conquest  ex- 
tinguished road-making  arts  in  the  southern  American 
hemisphere.  There  are  some  who  claim  that  there 
were  in  Brazil  (the  oldest  civilisation  in  South  Amer- 
ica, as  well  as  the  youngest  republic)  good  and  well 
travelled  roads  in  ancient  days  before  the  railroads  ap- 
propriated them.     But  this  country,   severed  by  the 


314      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

equator,  can  not  be  sure  of  having  good  roads  for  any 
length  of  time  unless  an  enormous  budget  makes  them 
possible.  The  Brazilians  must  fight  an  equatorial  cli- 
mate which  is  not  conducive  to  good  road  making. 
One  man  from  an  inland  town,  speaking  of  the  dif- 
ficulty in  using  his  automobile,  said : 

"I  get  my  automobile  out  about  once  a  year  and 
run  it  for  three  days  or  such  a  matter.  During  the 
remainder  of  the  year  I  can't  use  it  because  the  dust 
is  so  thick  in  the  dry  season,  and  then  when  the  rains 
come  I  can't  use  it  because  the  mud  is  so  deep." 

In  the  remote  parts  of  this  country  inland,  there 
are  no  means  of  communication  worth  mentioning  save 
by  rude  trails  and  waterways,  while  along  the  coastal 
extent  of  Brazil  the  18,000  or  more  miles  of  railways 
which  serve  the  more  civilised  portion  of  the  popula- 
tion appropriated  any  good  road  in  their  path. 

An  automobile  truck  that  essayed  recently  the  com- 
paratively short  journey  from  Rio  de  Janeiro  to  Pet- 
ropolis,  only  an  hour  and  a  half  by  an  express  train, 
after  fifteen  hours  of  struggling  through  terrible  roads, 
finally  found  the  highway  leading  to  a  railroad  trestle. 
In  Brazil  the  railroads  were  built  first  in  the  early  days 
of  the  republic  and  the  modernised  highways  have 
come  only  slowly  afterwards.  The  American  business 
man,  resident  in  Brazil,  who  trys  to  use  his  automobile 
in  the  country  here,  invariably  describes  the  roads 
as  "impossible." 

It  might  be  suggested  in  passing  that  there  would  be 
some  chance  for  a  cross-country  Brazilian  tour  for  a 
man  with  a  motor  cycle  and  an  adventurous  disposi- 
tion.    If  in  the  course  of  a  year  or  two  he  managed 


AUTOMOBILING  IN  BRAZIL  315 

to  get  through  the  Brazilian  swamps,  and  reached 
the  old  Inca  trails  over  the  Andes,  there  would  be  in 
store  for  him  one  of  the  most  picturesque  and  vivid  ex- 
periences to  be  found  anywhere  on  the  planet.  The 
llama  trails,  which  still  run  from  Cuzco  to  the  Pacific, 
pass  through  a  country  of  stupendous  and  primitive 
scenery  unsurpassed  in  any  part  of  the  Orient  or  Oc- 
cident which  I  have  visited.  If  such  a  motor  cyclist 
was  proof  against  "sorochee,"  or  mountain  sickness, 
which  attacks  certain  travellers,  he  could  find  virtu- 
ally an  unobstructed  trail  after  reaching  the  tablelands 
of  the  Cordilleras.  I  doubt  not  that  he  would  decide 
after  the  months  of  whirling  through  Indian  villages, 
encircling  mountains  whose  sides  are  terraced  and  cul- 
tivated to  the  very  snow  line  by  the  descendants  of 
the  Incas,  and  where  wheat  and  maize  are  raised  be- 
neath the  equatorial  sun  15,000  feet  above  the  sea, 
that  his  year  of  struggle  through  Brazilian  jungle  was 
more  than  justified.  I  have  often  wondered  in  travel- 
ling in  these  parts  of  altitudinous  Peru,  what  would  be 
the  result  if,  in  turning  one  of  these  winding  path- 
ways, a  motor  cyclist  would  suddenly  be  confronted 
by  a  pack  train  of  a  hundred  llamas,  driven. by  the  pic- 
turesque Indians  of  the  Sierras.  Perhaps,  after  all,  my 
enthusiastic  friend  of  the  Middle  West,  if  he  is  will- 
ing to  exchange  his  high  powered  car  for  a  motor  cycle, 
may  one  day  find  his  name  written  high  alongside  those 
of  Bolivar,  General  San  Martin,  Pizarro,  Almagro, 
and  other  intrepid  pioneers,  immortal  in  South  Amer- 
ican history. 

But  speaking  of  automobiles  in  .Brazil,  this  industry 
furnishes  a  very  good  way  by  which  to  secure  a  side 


316     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

light  upon  what  is  happening  in  this  big  republic  at 
present. 

As  we  looked  out  of  our  hotel  window  on  the  first 
morning  after  our  arrival  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  among  the 
first  visions  greeting  our  eyes  was  the  Avenida  Rio 
Branco,  filled  with  fine  looking  foreign  motor  cars, 
drawn  up  in  the  centre  of  the  wide  avenue,  each  with 
its  little  red  flag  hanging  out  the  side  with  "Libre" 
marked  upon  it.  These  were  not  the  usual  "taxis," 
which  we  were  accustomed  to  hail  in  the  cities  of  the 
United  States,  but  luxurious  French,  Italian  and  Ger- 
man cars,  big  enough  to  seat  six  or  seven  persons  in 
most  cases,  and  giving  all  the  appearance  of  privately 
owned  vehicles, — save  the  "free"  sign  and  the  watch- 
ful look  at  the  passers-by  in  the  eye  of  the  chauffeur. 

When  I  asked  the  reason  for  the  best  looking  motor 
cars  I  had  ever  seen  for  hire  in  any  city  in  the  world, 
I  was  told  of  the  "boom"  year  in  coffee  which  occurred 
in  19 1 2,  and  the  consequent  purchase  of  European  cars 
of  excellent  quality  by  the  Brazilians  grown  suddenly 
wealthy;  then  the  year  of  financial  crash  followed  in 
1 9 13  and  the  owners  of  these  cars,  some  of  whom  had 
bought  their  automobiles  on  long  credit,  were  forced 
to  turn  over  their  possessions  to  the  "taxi"  men,  and  in 
many  other  ways  to  practice  retrenchment  in  their 
spending  propensities. 

This  was  no  small  reverse  to  the  Brazilian  who  likes 
to  spend  his  money  when  he  has  it  quite  as  much  as 
the  more  thrifty  Portuguese,  coming  here  to  make 
money,  enjoys  hoarding  it.  But  the  Cariocan,  with  his 
easy-going  disposition  and  gambling  spirit,  makes  a 
virtue  of  his  necessity  and  walks  as  long  as  he  can  not 


AUTOMOBILING  IN  BRAZIL  317 

drive  along  the  shining  boulevard  where  all  Rio  goes 
daily,  while  the  Brazilian  maiden,  instead  of  whirling 
along  in  a  beautiful  car  over  the  fascinating  stretch 
of  palm-shaded  roadways  by  the  sea,  contents  herself 
by  leaning  out  of  her  window  according  to  Brazilian 
fashion.  This  custom  of  watching  your  world  from 
the  window  sill  or  getting  "corns  on  their  elbows,"  as 
one  has  expressed  it,  is  still  very  common  in  all  Bra- 
zilian towns  and  cities,  although  it  is  beginning  to  be 
considered  infra  dig.  Yet  the  fact  remains  that  houses 
on  the  street  car  line  command  a  larger  rent  than  those 
in  the  more  isolated  section,  because  the  carefully- 
coiffeured,  thickly-powdered  Brazilian  sefiorita  may 
have  the  opportunity  of  attracting  perchance  a  pros- 
pective husband,  as  he  daily  passes  beneath  her  window. 

Another  sidelight  is  thrown  on  the  scene  by  the 
presence,  in  large  preponderance  in  the  streets  of  the 
national  capital,  of  cars  made  in  Europe.  "Why  not 
American  automobiles?"  we  asked. 

To  be  sure,  we  noticed  a  section  of  a  fine  building  on 
this  same  popular  avenue  filled  with  an  exhibition  of 
"Fords,"  advertising  the  small  runabout  at  more  than 
double  the  price  charged  for  it  in  America,  while  the 
"Dodge,"  the  little  "Hup"  and  other  American  au- 
tomobiles of  cheaper  make  are  to  be  seen  in  Sao  Paulo, 
Santos  and  other  places  in  Southern  Brazil.  Yet,  as 
a  rule,  it  seems  to  be  the  French  rather  than  the  Amer- 
ican-made automobile  which  the  visitor  encounters 
everywhere  in  Brazil  where  cars  are  used  at  all. 

The  answer  to  one's  inquiries  corresponds  to  that 
which  will  be  met  relative  to  many  other  commodities 


318     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

in  the  realm  of  luxuries  which  the  Brazilian  people 
have  sought  and  found  in  the  Old  World.  The  re- 
public to  the  north  is  looked  upon  by  the  Brazilians  as 
a  great  land  of  utilities.  If  they  were  seeking  food- 
stuffs, or  certain  manufactures  and  things  of  prime 
necessity,  they  would  turn  perhaps  to  the  United  States 
for  their  supply.  But  the  automobile  is  still  largely 
a  luxury  in  this  country,  something  for  the  man  of 
wealth  in  the  city  or  for  the  rich  planter  to  use  on  his 
"fazenda,"  and  Europe  has  been  for  a  long  time  the 
home  of  luxury,  fashion,  smartness  and  artistry  for 
the  inhabitants  of  Brazil.  Like  the  Latin  Americans 
generally,  the  Brazilians  have  looked  upon  Continental 
Europe — Paris,  Naples,  Genoa,  or  Madrid — for  the 
exemplification  of  all  that  is  old,  cultured  and  aristo- 
cratic, while  North  America  exemplifies  to  them  the 
new  and  the  utilitarian,  and  also,  it  must  be  added,  the 
Anglo-Saxon  rather  than  the  Latin  taste  in  manufac- 
tures. The  Brazilian  will  be  quite  ready  to  buy  bolts 
of  the  American  dealer  to  rivet  together  the  machinery 
in  his  factory,  but  when  it  comes  to  clothes  for  his 
lady,  or  motor  cars  in  which  to  show  them  off — it  is  to 
Europe  that  he  goes  for  his  models  and  his  purchases. 
This  is  not  strange  when  one  comes  to  see  how  it  has 
all  come  about.  Europe  has  flooded  Brazil  with  lit- 
erature; she  has  entertained  the  South  Americans  with 
studied  care,  and  her  similarity  of  tastes  and  tempera- 
ment have  revealed  to  her  the  nature  and  character 
of  entertainment  desired.  French  and  Italian  convent 
schools  have  been  established  throughout  Brazil,  and 
along  with  foreign  text-books,  there  has  come  French 


AUTOMOBILING  IN  BRAZIL  319 

and  Italian  culture,  and  these  latter  have  paved  the 
way  for  foreign  trade. 

Even  the  diplomats  from  the  Old  World  have  been 
trade  promoters  in  disguise,  for  they  have  so  truly 
understood  and  adapted  their  manners  and  their  kind- 
ness to  reach  these  people,  that  the  Brazilian  who  fol- 
lows his  delights  more  often  than  his  dollars,  pre- 
fers to  buy  an  automobile  from  a  Frenchman,  since 
he  "likes"  his  manner  of  selling  quite  as  much  as  the 
style  of  the  machine. 

Lord  Bryce  has  pointed  out  in  his  book  on  South 
America  that  not  only  the  beginning  of  the  careers 
of  the  two  Americas  have  been  widely  divergent,  but 
beyond  a  fact  of  similarity  in  Constitutions  of  gov- 
ernment, there  is  little  in  common  by  way  of  lan- 
jguage,  traditions,  history  or  temperament  of  the  peo- 
ple. With  the  Latins  of  Europe,  on  the  contrary,  there 
is  a  strong  strain  of  racial  and  sentimental  unity  which 
accounts  for  the  choice  in  automobiles  as  truly  as  for 
the  selection  of  an  attractive  place  in  which  to  spend 
holidays. 

Yet  this  does  not  mean  that  Americans  do  not  or 
can  not  sell  motor  cars  to  Brazilians.  At  present  the 
United  States  is  having  something  of  a  monopoly  in 
this  business. 

In  19 1 5  American  automobile  sales  in  Brazil 
amounted  to  more  than  four  times  those  of  all  other 
nations  combined,  but  it  is  necessary  to  note  in  this 
connection  that  the  purchase  of  cars  had  decreased 
from  Germany,  from  1060  in  19 12  to  three  cars  in 
19 1 5,  and  instead  of  the  10 11  French  cars  sold  in 
Brazil  in  19 12,  the  records  show  that  ten  cars  were 


320      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

bought  from  that  country  in  the  year  19 15.  It  is  also 
enlightening  to  notice  that  in  19 15  there  were  only  214 
automobiles  imported,  while  in  19 12,  before  the  open- 
ing of  the  European  war,  there  were  3,785  cars  im- 
ported, only  785  of  these  being  purchased  from  Amer- 
ica. The  financial  condition  of  Brazil,  as  well  as  the 
war,  has  contributed  to  this  falling  off  of  money  spent 
for  automobiles,  a  decrease  from  $5,368,650  spent 
for  cars  in  1912  to  $190,358  expended  in  1915. 

The  financial  condition  of  this  country  would  seem 
to  offer  in  the  immediate  future  a  challenge  to  the  man- 
ufacturers of  American  cheap  cars.  The  future  of  the 
automobile  industry  here,  as  far  as  the  American-made 
machine  is  concerned,  depends  upon  the  way  the  mak- 
ers of  vehicles  in  the  United  States  prove  themselves 
capable  of  studying  the  Brazilian  needs,  and  adjusting 
themselves  to  these  requirements. 

The  market  for  motor  cars  in  Brazil  at  present  is 
almost  entirely  limited  to  half  a  dozen  cities  and  to 
a  few  larger  towns,  also  to  the  owners  or  managers  of 
large  coffee,  sugar,  or  other  sizable  plantations. 

Rio  de  Janeiro,  the  federal  capital,  carries  on  usu- 
ally about  40  per  cent  of  the  entire  amount  of  im- 
porting and  distributing  of  cars,  but  one  will  find  a 
goodly  number  of  automobiles  in  such  cities  as  Sao 
Paulo,  where  coffee  is  king,  and  in  Santos,  the  coffee 
port,  as  well  as  in  the  coastal  cities  like  Bahia,  Per- 
nambuco  and  Para.  The  inland  traveller  also  finds  in 
Bello  Horizonte,  in  the  State  of  Minas  Geraes,  some 
excellent  machines,  the  precursors  of  the  coming  period 
when  good  roads  and  many  cars  will  be  necessities 
as  well  as  luxuries. 


AUTOMOBILING  IN  BRAZIL  321 

Santos  is  the  one  city  that  continues  to  flourish  in 
the  automobile  trade  in  these  war  days,  and  in  these 
parts  the  motor  is  coming  to  its  own  as  a  factor  of 
farm  equipment  on  the  big  estates.  The  writer  has 
been  hurtled  across  these  great  coffee  "fazendas"  in 
South  Brazil  in  a  "Fiat"  at  a  speed  that  defied  roads 
whose  only  constituents  seemed  to  be  deep  sand  and 
ruts;  we  can  testify  that  these  landed  proprietors  re- 
gard speed  laws  as  only  nominal  obstructions  in  Brazil. 

It  may  be  said  in  passing  that  only  those  manufac- 
turers who  make  cars  on  honour  need  apply,  or  ex- 
pect a  return  order  in  the  rural  parts  of  this  country. 

Of  all  the  twenty-one  states  that  compose  the  giant 
Brazilian  republic,  the  federal  district  of  Rio  de 
Janeiro  is  at  present  the  automobilist's  paradise.  This 
district,  which  holds  a  place  similar  in  the  country  to 
the  District  of  Columbia  in  the  United  States,  is  re- 
ported to  have  at  present  2,347  registered  automo- 
biles, in  addition  to  the  Government  machines,  which 
do  not  require  registration. 

To  be  sure,  a  city  that  is  built  largely  on  hills  that 
ramble  in  most  intricate  profusion  for  many  miles 
along  the  sea,  does  not  give  much  opportunity  for  long 
or  straight-away  drives;  but  we  would  earnestly  rec- 
ommend to  all  lovers  of  the  automobile  and  the  flying 
road,  the  motor  trip  for  miles  along  the  enchanting, 
winding  water  front  of  Rio.  Here  one  is  in  the  land 
of  shining  macadam,  which  is  forgotten  in  the  magic 
of  the  scene. 

One  follows  the  various  parks,  or  beaches,  which 
fringe  the  parkway  of  the  new  Rio,  called  the  Avenida 
Beira  Mar.     There  is  the  shimmering  sunlight  on  the 


322      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

peerless  bay  with  its  hundreds  of  islands  by  day  and 
the  myriad  lights  by  night;  then  shooting  through  the 
tunnelled  mountain  that  acts  as  a  portal  to  the  Avenida 
Atlantica  and  the  already  famous  sea  speedway  bor- 
dering the  broad  Atlantic,  for  miles  to  the  new  Coun- 
try Club;  here  one  stops  and  finds  the  Corcovado 
mountain,  clothed  with  tropical  vegetation  at  one's 
back,  and  in  front  the  league-long  rollers  sweeping  in 
from  the  distant  Antarctic.  If  there  is  anything  by 
way  of  automobile  experience  more  indescribably  beau- 
tiful or  better  fitted  to  leave  the  mark  of  indelibility 
than  this,  it  is  forthcoming  as  you  continue  your  jour- 
ney in  the  famous  automobile  trip  over  the  Tijuca 
mountain,  from  every  zigzag  turn  of  which  a  pano- 
rama of  sea  and  city  shows  constantly  a  different  face. 

A  famous  European  traveller  said  there  were  three 
things  he  wished  to  do  again  before  he  died.  One 
was  to  lie  before  his  tent  in  the  desert  of  Sahara  in 
the  moonlight;  another  was  to  sail  again  through  the 
inland  seas  of  Japan,  and  the  third  and  best  of  all  was 
to  take  once  more  a  motor  ride  about  Tijuca. 

Some  day  the  flourishing  Automobile  Club  of  Brazil, 
which  has  a  Senator  just  now  for  its  President,  and 
a  site  from  which  ''every  prospect  pleases,"  will  be  in- 
viting the  clubs  of  motor  enthusiasts  from  the  Old  and 
New  Worlds  to  an  "International  Automobile  Car- 
nival" to  be  held  along  the  white,  sand-fringed  curves 
of  beach  that  guard  Rio  from  the  sea.  Until  that  day 
arrives  the  automobilists  of  other  and  distant  lands 
must  survive  upon  second-rate  sensations  of  natural 
beauty  and  abiding  charm. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE   SEA  THAT  GUARDS  RIO 

Where  the  sea-egg  flames  on  the  coral,  and  the  long-backed 

breakers  croon, 
Their  endless  ocean  legends  to  the  lazy  locked  lagoon. 

Rudyard  Kipling. 

IT  is  difficult  to  explain  the  seductive  charm  of  Rio 
de  Janeiro.  Certain  places  hold  one  by  a  sense  of 
remoteness,  others  by  the  spell  of  natural  beauty.  Rio 
is  one  of  these  cities  which  combines  the  old  and  the 
new,  in  such  an  atmosphere  of  tropical  splendour  and 
colour  as  to  make  an  unforgetable  impression.  It  is 
an  example  of  the  tropic-clad  statuary  of  nature  at  her 
best.  I  know  of  no  city  in  the  world  that  is  more 
engaging  than  Rio  with  its  one  million  of  inhabitants, 
resting  peacefully  in  bright  sunlight  on  the  ankles  of 
her  great  hills. 

There  is  something  quieting  and  beautifully  magic 
about  the  sea  in  Rio  bay.  Outside  of  imagination, 
there  is  naught  elsewhere  that  approaches  its  charm, 
and  he  who  stays  long  enough  to  really  experience  it 
is  like  one  who  dreams. 

The  sea  here  is  of  the  same  colour  as  the  soft 
chiffon-like  mist  of  grey  that  veils  continuously  the 
surrounding  hills.     It  is  probably  the  utter  harmony 

323 


SM      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

to  the  eye  that  comforts  one  here  and  induces  repose, 
or  it  may  be  the  "always-afternoon"  softness  of  the 
air  that  breathes  about  one  a  quiet  peace. 

In  every  direction  one  may  look  there  are  moun- 
tains, and  a  prodigal  luxury  of  verdant  hills — one  ris- 
ing beyond  another  and  all  seeming  to  be  pushing  for- 
ward as  if  to  keep  in  view  the  sparkling,  smiling  waters 
of  the  peerless  bay.  In  well-nigh  every  inlet  a  cluster 
of  low  houses,  with  their  stucco  walls  and  brown  tiled 
roofs,  furnish  the  exact  colour  shades  of  white  and 
dull  rose  to  blend  with  and  not  to  jar  the  deep  green 
of  the  hills  beyond.  Here  and  there  a  stately  royal 
palm  is  silhouetted  on  a  jutting  promontory  against 
the  perpetual  summer  sky,  keeping  one  mindful  that 
he  is  living  near  the  equator. 

Every  tiny  cove  is  fringed  with  an  arc  of  white 
sandy  beach,  upon  which  brown-faced  children  play. 
Great  boulders  rise  out  of  the  sea  here  and  there  as 
though  they,  too,  were  loath  to  lose  the  beauty  of 
these  magic  scenes  above  them ;  and  lest  they  mar  the 
effect,  they  cover  their  tops  with  rich  foliage  and  rim 
their  water  lines  with  green  sea  moss. 

Before  my  veranda,  not  more  than  two  hundred 
feet  away,  a  procession  of  porpoises  are  now  passing, 
rising  in  fascinating  regularity  above  the  smooth  wa- 
ter; the  glint  of  the  afternoon  sun  on  their  glittering 
skins  gives  the  effect  of  a  string  of  shining  black  pearls 
strung  on  a  green  sea  chain. 

But  for  the  fragrant  smell  of  the  salt  sea  air,  and  the 
steady  resistless  lap  of  the  tides  on  the  shore,  one  could 
easily  imagine  that  it  was  Lake  George,  or  possibly 
Lake  Geneva  among  the  Alps,  upon  which  he  was  gaz- 


THE  SEA  THAT  GUARDS  RIO  325 

ing;  for  as  the  breeze  comes  down  from  the  distant 
hills,  ruffling  the  undulations  of  these  tiny  arms  of  the 
bay,  small  boats  may  be  seen  putting  out  from  a  dozen 
diminutive  harbours — while  on  the  point  of  rocks  near 
by  a  group  of  barefooted  Brazilian  schoolboys  are  fish- 
ing with  long  poles. 

A  flock  of  gulls  crosses  an  arm  of  the  bay,  coming 
in  from  some  long  air  voyage  over  the  sea,  reminding 
one  of  Masefield's  sea  gulls,  uThe  souls  of  drowned 
mariners,  which  the  ocean  could  not  hold." 

And  now  the  soft  tropical  twilight  is  falling  over  the 
bay.  The  salt  air  blows  warm  but  fresh  upon  one's 
face;  the  beat  of  the  great  ocean's  heart  can  be  counted 
more  distinctly  as  the  evening  silence  falls,  and  the 
surf  moves  further  up  the  sandy  shore.  The  lights 
come  out  from  distant  Rio  like  fitful  fireflies,  first  flit- 
ting here  and  there,  then  becoming  more  steady  in  their 
myriad  radiance.  On  many  a  rocky  islet  a  lighthouse 
begins  to  twinkle  intermittently,  red,  white— red, 
white. 

The  bells  of  evening  come  faintly  to  the  ear,  borne 
across  the  water  from  a  small  hamlet  church  on  a 
distant  curve  of  the  bay;  the  night  winds  sing  over- 
head in  the  leaves  of  the  palms  and  tamarinds,  and  the 
soft-sounding  sea  that  guards  Rio  takes  you  in  its  arms 
like  a  mother  her  tired  child  at  night,  to  soothe  and  to 
bid  forget  all  care. 

IT  IS  RIO  THAT  I  MEAN 

There's  a  city  in  the  tropics 

That  is  fair  as  any  queen, 
High  Tijuca  watches  o'er  her 

It  is  Rio  that  I  mean. 


326     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

There's  a  magic  in  that  city, 
It  is  like  a  golden  dream, 

There's  the  Bay  of  Guanabara, 
It  is  Rio  that  I  mean. 

I  love  that  tropic  city 

I  love  her  sun  by  day, 
I  love  her  brilliant  evening  lights 

That  curve  around  her  bay. 
I  love  her  palm  crowned  hill  tops 

With  red  roofs  through  the  green 
I  love  her  bells  at  evening, 

It  is  Rio  that  I  mean. 

There's  one  man  whom  I  envy, 

For  he  loved  her  first  of  all, 
It  was  from  a  Spanish  caravel 

That  Magellan  was  enthralled. 
It  was  he  who  saw  Asucar 

Long  before  her  airy  car 
Had  sailed  the  sky  at  nightfall 

Like  a  gleaming  falling  star. 

Did  he  know — that  valiant  sailor — 

On  his  voyage  from  the  Horn, 
What  this  matchless  bay  would  shelter? 

What  a  city  would  be  born? 
Did  he  see  the  shining  boulevards? 

Did  the  Avenida  gleam? 
Did  the  lights  on  Corcovado 

Dance  and  beckon  in  his  dream? 

I  know  not  what  my  travelling  days 
May  bring  me,  passing  fair. 

It  may  be  isles  of  summer  bathed  in  sunny 
Afric  air; 
Perchance  a  Vale  of  Cashmere 

Neath  Himalaya  may  unfurl, 
Or  some  inland  sea  of  Nippon, 

Or  some  South  Sea  isle  of  pearl. 


THE  SEA  THAT  GUARDS  RIO  327 

But  when  journeyings  are  over, 

And  the  study  lamps  are  low, 
And  the  One  who  walked  beside  me 

Through  all  this  wide  world's  show 
Shall  take  my  hand,  and  read  my  heart 

And  murmur,  "Which  was  best?" 

I  shall  see  that  tropic  city, 

I  shall  see  its  palm  leaves  gleam, 

I  shall  see  the  lights  of  Nictheroy — 
It  is  Rio  that  I  mean. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

SOUTH   AMERICAN   WOMEN 

IT  is  difficult  to  make  general  statements  concern- 
ing the  circumstances  and  influences  that  govern 
the  conditions  of  women  in  South  America,  and  at  the 
same  time  give  a  picture  sufficiently  definite  and  dis- 
tinct to  be  of  interest.  The  lines  which  set  apart  geo- 
graphically from  each  other  the  republics  are  not  more 
distinct  than  the  lines  which  for  many  reasons  sepa- 
rate the  women  of  Peru  and  Argentina,  of  Bolivia 
and  of  Uruguay,  of  Chile  and  of  Brazil. 

One  can  go  to  South  America  with  few  precon- 
ceived notions  regarding  its  women,  for  after  search- 
ing through  the  volumes  written  about  these  countries, 
one  finds  only  here  and  there  a  short  paragraph  dealing 
with  the  status  of  the  women,  and  very  little  about  their 
modes  of  living,  their  thoughts,  ideals  or  ambitions. 
Book  after  book  is  written  dealing  with  the  commerce 
of  this  growing  country,  with  descriptions  of  its  great 
cities,  its  feudal-like  farms,  its  possibilities  for  the  en- 
terprising, ambitious  young  men  from  other  lands,  but 
nothing  is  said  about  the  mothers  and  the  wives  of  the 
men  who  are  building  the  foundation  of  this  coming 
land  of  promise. 

The  modern  currents  that  are  affecting  the  women 

328 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  WOMEN  329 

of  the  United  States  and  of  Europe,  that  are  reaching 
even  the  women  of  the  Far  East,  seem  to  have  touched 
but  lightly  the  great  body  of  the  women  of  Latin  Amer- 
ican lands. 

While  sources  of  information  are  scanty,  yet  there 
is  enough  to  show  that  many  South  American  women 
have  shown  examples  of  great  courage  and  patriotism. 

History  tells  us  that  the  Brazilian  women  of  Sao 
Paulo,  in  early  colonial  days,  when  their  husbands 
returned  home  after  a  crushing  defeat  at  the  hands 
of  the  Indians,  scornfully  rebuked  the  vanquished  war- 
riors with  the  command,  "Go  back  and  conquer,  it  is 
only  as  victors  that  we  will  receive  you.n 

The  songs  of  the  people  of  Colombia  tell  of  the 
beautiful  patriot  Policarpa  Salabarrieta,  who  was  exe- 
cuted for  her  part  in  Colombia's  struggle  for  liberty. 
She  died,  exhorting  the  seven  men  who  were  executed 
with  her  to  meet  their  fate  like  men  and  heroes.  Under 
the  title  of  "La  Polae,"  her  name  is  loved  by  the  com- 
mon people,  and  sixty  years  after  her  death  the  Colom- 
bian Congress  voted  a  pension  to  her  surviving  rela- 
tives. 

Not  only  have  women  been  courageous  in  war,  and 
offered  their  husbands  and  sons  gladly  in  the  cause  of 
Liberty,  but  an  Argentine  woman  has  been  a  distin- 
guished advocate  for  peace.  The  colossal  statue  of 
Christ  on  the  summit  of  the  Andes,  at  the  border  line 
between  Chile  and  Argentina  commemorates  the  treaty 
of  peace  made  between  the  two  spirited  nations.  The 
statue  is  cast  from  bronze  of  old  cannon  which  the 
Spanish  left  at  the  time  of  the  achievement  of  Argen- 


330     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

tine  independence.  On  the  monument  is  the  inscrip- 
tion: 

"Sooner  shall  these  mountains  crumble  into  dust 
than  the  people  of  Argentina  and  Chile  break  the 
peace  to  which  they  have  pledged  themselves  at  the 
feet  of  Christ,  the  Redeemer." 

The  conception  of  such  a  monument  came  from 
Bishop  Benavente  and  a  woman,  Sefiora  da  Costa,  and 
it  was  she,  who,  as  President  of  the  Christian  Mother's 
Association  of  Buenos  Aires,  undertook  the  work  of 
securing  funds  and  of  getting  the  statue  erected.  This 
was  accomplished  and  the  statue,  on  a  great  column, 
in  a  pass  about  13,000  feet  above  sea  level,  was  dedi- 
cated March  13th,  1904,  in  the  presence  of  more  than 
three  thousand  persons. 

Sefiora  da  Costa's  words  telling  the  story  of  the 
monument,  show  the  spirit  of  the  women  in  whose 
heart  and  mind  the  idea  was  conceived: 

"The  penetrating  idea  of  the  commemorative  mon- 
ument was  in  the  national  atmosphere,  and  I  had  but 
to  condense  it  in  my  spirit  to  give  it  tangible  form. 
If  the  idea  is  mine,  it  is  in  the  same  way  as  to  the 
sculptor  belongs  the  statue  which  he  brings  forth  from 
the  block  of  marble  where  it  was  sleeping  invisible,  and 
I  even  dare  to  think  that  the  idea  had  to  issue  from 
the  brain  of  a  woman,  because  it  is  an  idea  of  sentiment, 
and  in  all  time  men  have  reproached  us  for  thinking 
with  the  heart. 

Moreover,  everything  which  tends  to  perpetual 
peace  by  its  prestige  and  glorification  especially  inter- 
ests and  affects  us  women,  that  is  to  say  the  mothers, 
wives,  daughters,  the  betrothed  of  those  who  must  fall, 
sacrificed  on  the  battlefields.     War  may  dazzle  men 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  WOMEN  331 

with  its  lightning  flashes  of  military  glory.  For  us 
women,  it  represents  only  tears  and  pain;  that  is  why 
the  Latin  poet  called  it  'accursed  by  mothers.'  " 

It  is  difficult  in  writing  of  the  women  of  Latin  Amer- 
ica to  speak  of  them  collectively.  There  is  a  marked 
difference,  for  example,  in  the  women  of  Peru  and  the 
more  advanced  women  of  Argentina,  of  Brazil  or  Uru- 
guay. The  women  of  Peru  are  just  peering  through 
their  latticed  windows  into  the  world  outside,  whtfe 
the  Argentine  has  boldly  stepped  through  the  door- 
way. Yet  the  movement  to  give  woman  more  oppor- 
tunities to  develop  her  abilities,  to  express  her  person- 
ality, and  to  receive  higher  education  is  sweeping  over 
this  southern  country,  and  one  can  watch  its  progress 
as  one  passes  from  Peru  down  the  West  Coast  and 
across  the  Andes  to  Argentina  and  Brazil. 

At  all  hours  of  the  day  one  sees  black^robed  figures 
winding  their  way  through  the  narrow  streets  of  Lima 
or  Arequipa  on  their  way  to  the  churches  where  they 
will  kneel  before  their  favourite  altar,  asking  a  blessing 
upon  the  families  who  seemingly  find  their  God  through 
the  piety  of  their  women  folk.  It  is  a  well  known  fact 
that  the  church  is  losing  gradually  its  power  in  Peru, 
because  the  men  are  turning  from  forms  and  creeds, 
and  in  their  emancipation  are  becoming  agnostic.  But 
the  women  still  uphold  their  faith  and  will  go  to 
any  length  to  preserve  its  forms  and  symbols. 

When  the  bill  was  introduced  into  the  Peruvian 
legislature  allowing  the  liberty  of  worship,  it  was  bit- 
terly opposed  by  the  Catholic  church.  The  women  be- 
came active  partisans  in  the  fight,  and  contrary  to  all 
precedent,  the  quiet,  almost  cloistered  women  of  Lima, 


832      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

marched  in  the  streets,  going  to  the  Senate  and  crying 
from  its  galleries  as  the  bill  was  being  read,  finally 
throwing  bunches  of  hay  upon  the  embarrassed  sena- 
tors, thus  signifying  that  the  women  of  Lima  con- 
sidered them  donkeys. 

But  it  was  the  first  time  that  the  ladies  of  Lima 
showed  themselves  in  public  demonstration,  and  per- 
haps it  will  be  the  last,  as  the  Peruvian  lady  will  be 
one  of  the  last  recruits  for  women  suffrage  or  in 
fact  for  any  movement  that  will  take  her  outside  her 
kingdom,  the  home. 

One  sees  many  signs  of  Spanish  civilisation  in  Peru, 
and  especially  in  the  rules  concerning  the  lives  of  the 
women.  The  old  Moorish  domination  of  the  Spaniard 
is  seen  in  the  screened  balconies  overlooking  the  streets, 
where  the  ladies  of  the  house  may  watch  the  passing 
crowds  in  the  street,  themselves  unseen.  There  is  the 
long  dark  shawl  draped  around  the  head  and  face, 
and  hanging  in  folds  that  disguise  the  figure,  the  cousin 
of  the  veiled  custom  of  old  Moorish  days.  There  is  the 
lace  mantilla  that  is  worn  by  all  to  church,  as  in  Peru 
one  can  not  wear  a  hat  in  the  places  of  worship,  and 
there  are  the  inner  patios  around  which  are  placed  the 
women's  quarters,  hidden  from  curious  eyes  of  those 
persons  who  might  be  visiting  the  master  of  the  house- 
hold. 

It  is  all  Eastern,  and  although  the  Peruvian  lady  has 
travelled,  and  may  have  been  educated  in  France,  still 
she  is  Oriental  in  her  belief  that  the  woman's  realm 
is  the  home;  she  feels  that  she  is  the  sole  property  of 
her  husband  and  her  children,  her  only  aim  in  life 
to  keep  well  her  household  and  to  see  that  her  children 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  WOMEN  333 

make  their  mark  in  their  appointed  places  in  life.  Like 
her  sister,  the  woman  of  India,  she  does  not  care  to 
become  a  star  herself,  she  only  wishes  to  shine  in  re- 
flected glory. 

The  young  girl  of  Peru  is  educated  with  but  one  ob- 
ject in  view,  that  of  obtaining  a  husband.  She  is  taught 
to  play  the  piano,  embroider,  speak  French,  dance, 
and  generally  make  herself  attractive.  She  is  acknowl- 
edged by  all  to  have  a  very  good  brain,  in  fact,  some 
say  the  woman  is  superior  to  the  man  in  Peru,  intel- 
lectually, morally  and  physically.  But  as  far  as  her 
intellect  is  concerned,  she  is  not  given  the  opportunity 
to  develop  it.  She  does  not  read  except  the  rather 
highly  coloured  French  novels  or  translations  of  those 
romances  that  appeal  to  the  emotional  Latin  American. 
She  is  not  taught  to  think,  and  her  men  folk  try  to 
come  down  to  her  level  in  their  conversations  with  her. 

Yet  there  is  no  woman  who  has  more  native  wit, 
who  is  quicker  and  brighter  at  repartee  than  the  Peru- 
vian, and  all  admit  that  there  is  no  woman  who  has 
a  higher  standard  of  morality  than  have  these  same 
dark  eyed  sefioras,  who  live  in  a  country  where  there 
are  no  divorce  laws. 

In  Peru,  especially,  the  women  are  conservative, 
living  their  life  within  the  women's  quarters,  nearly  as 
Oriental  a  life  as  is  lived  by  the  harem  women  in  India. 

The  women  of  the  better  class  particularly  form  the 
stronghold  of  the  Catholic  church.  They  have  not 
had  the  education  nor  experienced  the  modernising 
influences  that  have  alienated  the  men  from  the  faith 
of  their  fathers.  The  church,  its  fasts  and  its  feasts, 
the  early  morning  mass,  the  confessional  and  its  elab- 


334     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

orate  ritual  seems  to  be  the  main  avenue  through  which 
the  women  get  into  contact  with  the  world  outside 
their  homes.  Women  go  to  mass  every  morning,  many 
go  to  confession  every  day,  and  the  Sacrament  is  taken 
at  least  once  a  week,  and  by  many  the  day  is  com- 
menced by  partaking  of  the  consecrated  wafer.  The 
daily  confession  gives  the  priests  great  power  in  in- 
fluencing the  life  of  the  home. 

Many  of  the  fathers  would  like  their  sons  educated 
in  secular  schools,  but  the  influence  of  the  church  is 
towards  the  schools  conducted  by  some  one  of  the 
Catholic  orders,  and  pressure  is  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  mothers:  consequently  the  average  youth  of  the 
better  class  obtains  at  least  his  primary  education  in 
the  Church  institutions. 

The  girls  are  trained  in  the  convents  of  their  own 
land,  or  in  Europe,  but  their  education  is  generally 
superficial,  consisting  in  what  we  would  call  a  "finish- 
ing education,"  music,  a  little  painting,  languages 
(very  many  girls  in  the  South  American  republics  are 
accomplished  linguists),  a  slight  knowledge  of  Spanish 
and  French  literature,  and  deportment.  They  have 
charming  manners,  are  intensely  feminine,  and  when 
young  the  Peruana  is  often  very  pretty.  She  has  large 
dark  eyes,  which  she  knows  how  to  use  effectively,  and 
a  good  complexion,  a  graceful  figure  (which  she  loses 
often  by  the  time  she  is  thirty),  and  hers  is  the  art  of 
dressing  with  much  taste.  She  knows  how  to  wear  her 
clothes,  and  whether  she  is  a  woman  of  the  middle 
class,  dressed  in  a  manta,  or  black  shawl  draped  around 
her  head  and  covering  her  body  to  the  knees,  or  in 
the  ordinary  street  gown  of  European  manufacture  and 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  WOMEN  335 

the  lace  mantilla  over  her  hair,  she  is  always  chic  and 
attractive. 

In  Peru  the  women  of  the  better  class  do  not  wear 
a  hat  in  the  morning  as  they  are  supposed  to  have  been 
to  church  if  they  go  out  of  the  house  before  noon,  and 
it  is  forbidden  to  wear  a  hat  in  any  church  in  Peru. 
But  in  the  afternoon  she  may  be  seen  in  the  shops  or 
in  motors  hurrying  to  some  afternoon  tea  or  bridge 
party,  dressed  in  the  latest  Paris  creation.  Women, 
and  especially  young  women,  are  never  seen  alone  in 
the  street,  as  it  is  considered  most  improper  for  a 
woman  under  forty  to  go  out  of  her  home  unchaper- 
oned  by  an  older  woman.  Another  peculiar  custom  to 
the  northern  visitor,  is  the  fact  that  a  woman  upon 
meeting  a  man  acquaintance  does  not  bow  to  him  un- 
less he  first  salutes  her,  and  she  would  never  stop 
and  talk  to  him,  although  he  might  walk  with  her  for 
a  few  steps,  if  she  was  accompanied  by  some  older 
member  of  her  family. 

A  young  man  calling  upon  a  Spanish  family  (and 
this  custom  is  quite  universal  in  all  of  the  South  Amer- 
ican countries)  is  never  left  alone  with  the  daughter  of 
the  household.  If  the  parents  or  chaperons  should  by 
chance  leave  them  alone  together,  it  is  expected  that  he 
will  propose  to  the  girl,  and  if  he  is  inclined  to  enter 
the  doors  of  matrimony  and  should  be  accepted  by  the 
young  lady,  it  is  his  last  opportunity  of  being  alone 
with  her  until  the  marriage  vows  have  been  pro- 
nounced. After  marriage  the  woman  enters  upon  her 
heritage  of  social  freedom,  yet  she  is  restricted  to  a 
certain  extent.  A  married  woman  does  not  receive  a 
caller  of  the  other  sex  in  her  husband's  absences,  nor 


336     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

does  she  dance  with  any  man  except  her  husband.  She 
would  not  think  of  entertaining  or  being  entertained 
in  his  absence,  and  if  he  is  away  from  home  for  any 
length  of  time,  she  is  supposed  to  remain  secluded  until 
his  reappearance  upon  the  scene. 

The  business  world  is  just  beginning  to  open  its 
doors  to  the  women  of  South  America.  In  Ecuador, 
Colombia  and  Bolivia  women  have  not  yet  entered 
into  the  industries  or  the  professions,  and  there  is 
scarcely  as  yet  any  paid  work  for  women  outside  of 
the  home.  In  Peru  the  woman  who  has  to  work  for 
her  living  is  looked  down  upon.  There  is  a  great  gulf 
in  this  aristocratic  country  between  the  labouring  and 
well-to-do  classes,  which  makes  it  especially  hard  for 
women  to  enter  the  business  world.  Many  prefer  to 
do  "sweat  shop"  labour  for  the  big  firms,  barely  ek- 
ing out  a  miserable  existence,  yet  still  feeling  that  they 
are  keeping  their  "caste"  by  doing  the  work  at  home,' 
rather  than  work  publicly  where  they  will  be  seen  by 
their  neighbours,  and  classed  as  working  women. 

Even  women  teachers  have  little  standing,  and  it  is 
within  only  the  last  few  years  that  women  have  taken 
positions  as  cashiers,  clerks,  or  stenographers.  Of  the 
handful  of  women  who  have  graduated  at  the  univer- 
sities, one  is  practising  medicine,  two  dentistry,  a  few 
pharmacy  and  a  few  others  are  conducting  private 
schools.  The  old  Spanish  pride  for  some  time  to  come 
will  keep  the  better  class  women  of  Peru  from  entering 
the  business  world  in  any  capacity.  Nevertheless  there 
is  developing  gradually  a  middle  class  of  women  who 
are  intelligent,  and  who  because  they  are  not  afraid 
of  work  and  have  no  feeling  of  disgrace  in  their  toil, 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  WOMEN  337 

are  developing  intellectually  and  will  eventually  open 
the  way  for  other  women  to  learn  that  there  is  a  means 
of  livelihood  other  than  that  of  marriage. 

There  is  an  element  of  greater  independence  in  Chil- 
ean womanhood,  and  their  entrance  into  the  industrial 
world  has  put  a  new  emphasis  on  the  dignity  of  wom- 
an's work.  In  the  large  cities  they  are  found  mainly 
in  the  factories  and  stores,  but  they  are  gradually  en- 
tering the  government  and  business  offices.  Stenog- 
raphy and  typewriting  are  being  taught  in  the  girls' 
professional  schools,  but  the  chief  profession  open  to 
women  is  that  of  teaching.  The  Chilean  woman  is 
more  advanced  than  are  the  women  of  Colombia  or 
Peru.  She  is  an  ardent  supporter  of  the  church,  but 
less  bigoted  and  narrow  than  the  Peruana.  She  is  more 
cosmopolitan,  is  not  tied  down  so  closely  by  tradition 
and  custom,  and  is  keeping  step  with  the  man  of  Chile 
in  his  modern  progress.  There  is  no  Chilean  type,  as 
there  is  in  Peru.  The  woman  you  meet  on  the  streets 
or  in  the  beautiful  homes  of  Valparaiso  or  Santiago, 
might  be  seen  in  New  York  or  Paris.  She  may  be  of  a 
distinctly  German  type,  or  look  like  an  English  woman 
just  come  from  some  village  in  Great  Britain,  as  many 
of  the  English  and  German  colonists  married  Chilean 
wives,  and  their  descendants  may  be  traced  by  their 
fair  hair  and  blue  eyes.  If  of  the  upper  classes,  she 
is  often  very  charming  and  of  unusual  beauty. 

Across  the  Andes  one  comes  into  another  world  al- 
together than  that  seen  on  the  West  Coast.  In  Ar- 
gentina everything  is  so  intensely  modern  and  up-to- 
date,  that  it  is  quite  disappointing  for  the  visitor  look- 
ing for  "local  colour."    There  is  no  colour  in  Argentina 


338      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

save  the  colour  of  gold  that  seems  to  cover  everything. 
Argentina  is  so  prosperous,  so  vulgarly  rich  and  con- 
tented with  herself.  Her  capital,  Buenos  Aires,  is  a 
beautiful  city,  a  mixture  of  Paris,  Berlin  and  Chicago. 

Its  streets  and  boulevards  are  among  the  broadest, 
the  longest  and  the  finest  in  the  world.  You  thor- 
oughly realise  it,  even  before  you  are  told  it.  Its  shops, 
its  jewels,  and  its  crowds  of  well  dressed  women  com- 
pare favourably  with  those  in  any  city  on  the  globe. 
Luxurious  motors  may  be  seen  carrying  exquisitely 
dressed  women  and  children  to  and  from  the  great 
houses  that  line  the  principal  resident  streets.  Here 
again  there  is  no  distinct  type.  You  can  not  point  to  a 
woman  and  say,  "That  is  an  Argentine."  The  races 
are  quite  mixed. 

The  Argentine  woman  is  advanced  and  she  is  enter- 
ing the  world  of  business  and  thought.  Women  are 
contributors  to  the  leading  magazines  and  philosophical 
reviews,  and  they  are  studying  in  the  universities  and 
technical  schools,  and  there  is  a  large  and  ever  growing 
number  of  business  women  in  Buenos  Aires.  Large 
numbers  are  employed  throughout  Argentina  as  teach- 
ers, and  stenography  is  becoming  very  popular.  Teach- 
ers of  languages,  dressmaking,  and  domestic  science  are 
to  be  found  in  the  larger  cities  and  towns. 

The  women  of  Argentina,  in  their  new  found  free- 
dom, are  advancing  a  little  too  fast  for  their  spiritual 
good.  Many  of  them  pride  themselves  that  they  have 
left  their  old  religion  far  behind,  and  that  they  do  not 
need  a  new  one.  I  asked  a  woman  doctor,  a  graduate  of 
the  University  of  Buenos  Aires,  if  she  went  to  church. 

"Indeed,  no,"  she  replied. 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  WOMEN  639 

"But  your  friends  go  to  church?"  I  inquired. 

"Indeed  they  do  not,"  she  said. 

"But,  have  you  no  religion?"  I  asked. 

"We  are  rationalists,"  she  answered. 

"But  women  must  have  a  religion,"  I  said. 

"Why  should  they?"  she  inquired,  and  I  abandoned 
the  argument.  I  have  found  that  when  women  get 
so  learned  and  advanced  that  they  feel  they  are  suf- 
ficient unto  themselves,  it  is  time  for  mere  man  to  retire 
from  the  scene. 

In  Brazil  one  finds  the  quiet,  home  woman  again. 
She  has  not  entered  public  life  except  in  a  few  cases. 
There  is  a  quiet  charm  about  her  not  found  in  her 
more  advanced  sister  of  Argentina.  She  is  not  so 
modern,  obtains  her  education  in  the  convent  schools, 
and  still  believes  that  woman's  realm  is  the  home.  The 
Brazilian  type  does  not  make  for  great  beauty,  as  the 
intermixture  of  many  bloods  has  made  her,  especially 
in  the  lower  classes,  rather  too  dark,  at  least  for 
American  taste.  But  her  eyes  and  hair  are  always 
beautiful,  and  the  young  girl  is  graceful  and  coquettish 
and  attractive,  but  she,  like  the  Peruana,  loses  some- 
what of  her  beauty  early  in  life,  and  tends  to  settle 
down  often  into  placidity  and  domesticity  of  the  rather 
ordinary  sort,  when  she  has  found  a  husband  and  borne 
him  a  son  or  two. 

The  women  of  South  America  are  among  the  best 
wives  and  mothers  in  the  world.  They  love  chil- 
dren, and  believe  themselves  truly  blessed  if  they  can 
bear  a  large  family,  the  larger  the  better,  to  their  lord 
and  master.  There  are  never  too  many  babies  in  a 
South  American  home.     Among  the  poor  the  tragedy 


340      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

is  that  the  mothers  in  their  ignorance  do  not  know  how 
to  care  for  their  babies.  Along  the  West  Coast  from 
forty  to  ninety  per  cent  die  under  two  years  of  age. 
The  mothers  of  the  better  class  lavish  a  wealth  of 
tenderness  upon  their  children  but  do  not  train  them  in 
self  discipline.  They  are  often  what  we  call  in  our 
country  "spoiled,"  although  they  appear  to  the  stranger 
to  have  beautiful  manners.  When  a  child  enters  the 
house  he  kisses  his  mother  upon  the  cheek,  and  his 
father  upon  his  hand,  and  so  far  as  superficial  respect 
goes,  it  is  all  that  may  be  desired. 

The  homes  of  the  richer  class  of  South  Americans 
are  magnificent  and  even  the  poorer  homes  have  a 
certain  charm  with  their  flower-filled  patios,  and  great 
high-ceilinged  rooms,  although  these  same  big  rooms 
are  uncomfortable  in  the  winter,  especially  in  the 
West  Coast  and  in  Argentina.  There  is  no  heat  in  the 
houses,  and  the  women  sit  around  tiny  braziers  or  oil 
stoves,  bundled  up  in  their  furs.  They  think  that  it 
is  unhealthful  to  have  heated  houses,  and  obey  the 
doctor's  injunction  to  put  on  heavy  clothing  in  the 
house,  and  take  it  off  when  going  into  the  sunshine. 

There  are  few  conveniences  in  the  average  South 
American  middle  or  lower-class  home  in  Peru;  the 
kitchens  are  simply  earthen  floored  rooms,  where  the 
food  is  cooked  over  a  charcoal  brazier,  and  the  guinea 
pigs  and  chickens  play  around  under  foot.  Cleanliness 
is  not  understood,  and  their  ideas  of  sanitation  are  of 
the  simplest.  Often  in  towns  such  as  Cuzco,  the  fam- 
ily linen  is  washed  in  the  open  drain  passing  in  front 
of  the  door,  as  microbes  are  things  still  unknown  to 
the  average  woman  in  South  America. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  SOUTH  AMERICANS 

Facile  belief  is  of  but  little  value;  it  often  only  means  that, 
as  certain  words  make  no  impression  whatever  upon  the  mind, 
so  they  excite  no  opposition  to  it.  There  are  few  things  which 
Christ  would  have  visited  with  sterner  censure,  than  that  short 
cut  to  belief  which  consists  of  abandonment  of  mental  effort. 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge. 

THE  student  of  Peruvian  religion  will  discover 
similarities  between  the  faith  dominant  in  this 
country  during  the  long  rule  of  the  Incas  and  that  which 
was  introduced  into  the  more  modern  Peru  by  the 
Spanish  conquerors  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

The  Inca  religion,  which  was  a  mixture  of  theocracy 
and  sun  worship,  was  like  the  Roman  Christianity,  an 
authoritative  and  super-imposed  faith.  It  was  an  af- 
fair of  the  State  and  the  rulers  held  their  subjects  re- 
ligiously as  well  as  politically  responsible.  The  two 
orders  of  belief  were  both  attended  by  an  opulence  of 
religious  establishments,  an  ostentatious  ceremonial  in- 
tended to  impress  with  awe  the  people ;  a  superior  pre- 
dominance of  the  sacerdotal  order,  and  innumerable  re- 
ligious  feasts  together  with  the  prevalence  of  sacrifices. 

The  orthodox  Spaniards  who  first  came  into  Peru 

341 


342      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

noted  a  striking  resemblance  in  many  of  the  old  Inca 
religious  rites  to  those  at  that  time  prevalent  in  the 
Catholic  church.  In  the  distribution  of  bread  and 
wine  at  the  Inca  festival  of  Raymi,  the  Christian  cus- 
tom of  communion  was  suggested,  while  in  the  practice 
of  confession  and  penance  which  seems  to  have  been 
in  vogue  in  a  somewhat  irregular  form  amongst  the 
Peruvian  Indians,  they  discerned  a  similarity  to  an- 
other of  the  sacraments  of  the  Roman  church.  These 
analogies,  however,  were  usually  attributed  by  the 
Catholic  fathers  to  the  contrivances  of  Satan  who 
seemed  to  be  endeavouring  to  delude  his  victims  by 
counterfeiting  the  ceremonies  of  the  only  true  religion. 
So  marked  were  these  likenesses  that  at  one  time  there 
was  a  tradition  that  one  of  the  Apostles  had  himself 
visited  these  South  American  realms  and  deposited  the 
seeds  of  the  Christian  gospel. 

In  both  the  ancient  and  modern  religious  systems 
of  Peru  there  is  discovered  particularly  the  evidence 
of  a  mild  but  a  searching  religious  despotism,  in  which 
independent  individual  thought  and  personal  convic- 
tion have  far  less  influence  than  in  the  religious  char- 
acteristics of  North  American  inhabitants. 

One  of  the  first  impressions  of  the  traveller  in  Peru 
is  that  of  the  all-prevalent  sway  of  religious  adherence. 
In  theory  at  least,  every  one  is  a  Catholic  in  faith,  and 
the  innumerable  churches  together  with  the  large  num- 
ber of  priests  and  church  officials  met  with  everywhere, 
would  seem  to  reveal  a  universally  religious  state. 

Although  a  closer  inspection  of  this  matter  reveals 
that  many  of  these  churches  are  rarely  filled,  espe- 
cially with  men  worshippers,  that  indeed  the  educated 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS    343 

young  Peruvian  is  inclined  to-day  towards  rationalism 
and  an  indifferent  attitude  toward  the  church,  never- 
theless it  is  a  fact  that  the  government  supports  the 
Roman  faith  as  a  national  religion,  and  until  recently 
included  in  the  Constitution  a  clause  virtually  inimical 
to  any  other  faith. 

In  this  respect  modern  religion  in  Peru  had  its 
counterpart  in  the  ancient  belief  of  the  Incas.  To 
them  religion  was  the  basis  of  their  entire  polity,  and 
it  was  interwoven  with  their  social  existence  quite  as 
closely  as  Hinduism  has  associated  itself  with  the 
daily  life  of  the  East  Indian.  The  Incas,  like  many 
other  Indian  races,  acknowledged  a  Supreme  Being 
who  was  the  creator  and  ruler  of  the  universe,  and 
raised  at  least  one  temple  in  honour  of  this  Being.  The 
Deity,  however,  which  seemed  to  claim  the  chief  ven- 
eration of  these  Peruvian  Indians,  was  the  Sun.  To 
him  they  looked  for  light,  warmth,  and  protection. 
They  reverenced  the  Sun  as  the  father  of  their  royal 
dynasty,  the  founder  of  their  Empire,  and  in  almost 
every  city  and  town  of  the  vast  Inca  realm  which  swept 
in  ancient  days  through  Ecuador,  Peru  and  Chile,  tem- 
ples to  the  Sun  arose  and  altars  smoked  with  the  burnt 
offerings  to  the  celestial  luminary. 

Connected  with  this  Deity  there  was  also  t»he  wor- 
ship of  the  Moon,  who  was  called  the  sister-wife  of  the 
Sun;  the  Stars  as  attendants  of  her  heavenly  train, 
while  Venus,  who  was  known  to  the  Peruvians  as  the 
"Youth  with  the  long  and  curling  locks,"  was  wor- 
shipped as  the  page  or  constant  attendant  of  the  Sun, 
whom  he  followed  so  closely  in  his  rising  and  his  set- 
ting.    According  to  the  Incas,  the  Sun's  dread  minis- 


344     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ters  were  the  Thunder  and  the  Lightning,  to  whom  also 
temples  were  dedicated,  as  well  as  to  the  Rainbow, 
whom  the  Indians  recognised  as  the  beautiful  emana- 
tion of  their  glorious  Deity. 

Theirs  was  a  remarkable,  and  for  the  most  part 
an  inoffensive,  nature  worship,  in  which  the  Celestial 
luminaries  shared  with  the  winds,  the  earth,  the  air, 
the  rivers  and  the  majestic  mountains,  in  exercising  a 
mysterious  influence  over  the  destinies  of  men.  Like 
the  Buddhists,  the  Incas  also  revealed  the  ability  of  as- 
similation of  the  numerous  deities  of  the  nations 
which  they  conquered,  the  various  images  of  these 
tribes  being  transported  to  Cuzco,  the  Inca  capital,  and 
their  worship  supported  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  prov- 
ince from  which  they  were  captured. 

The  great  Peruvian  city  of  temples,  pride  and  won- 
der of  the  Inca  empire,  was  at  Cuzco,  upon  which 
was  showered  the  largess  of  the  entire  extent  of  the 
land,  and  which  was  justly  called  "The  Place  of  Gold.,, 
The  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Cuzco  has  had  few  rivals 
in  its  richness  and  glorious  worship.  It  stands  revealed 
in  the  vivid  picture  of  Prescott  the  historian : 

"The  interior  of  the  Temple  was  the  most  worthy 
of  admiration.  It  was  literally  a  mine  of  gold.  On 
the  western  wall  was  emblazoned  a  representation  of 
the  Deity,  consisting  of  a  human  countenance  looking 
forth  from  innumerable  rays  of  light,  which  emanated 
from  it  in  every  direction,  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
Sun  is  often  personified  with  us.  The  figure  was  en- 
graved on  a  massive  plate  of  gold  of  enormous  dimen- 
sions, thickly  powdered  with  emeralds  and  precious 
stones.  It  was  so  situated  in  front  of  the  great  eastern 
portal  that  the  rays  of  the  morning  sun  fell  directly 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS     345 

upon  it  at  its  rising,  lighting  up  the  whole  apartment 
with  an  effulgence  that  seemed  more  than  natural,  and 
which  was  reflected  back  from  the  golden  ornaments 
with  which  the  walls  and  ceilings  were  everywhere  in- 
crusted. 

"Gold,  in  the  figurative  language  of  the  people, 
was  'the  tears  wept  by  the  Sun,'  and  every  part  of  the 
interior  of  the  Temple  glowed  with  burnished  plates 
and  studs  of  the  precious  metal.  The  cornices  which 
surrounded  the  wall  of  the  Sanctuary  were  of  the  same 
costly  material;  and  a  broad  belt  or  frieze  of  gold  let 
into  the  stone  work  encompassed  the  whole  exterior 
of  the  edifice." 


It  seemed  the  irony  of  conquest  that  this  resplen- 
dent gold  image  of  the  Sun,  which  had  looked  down 
upon  countless  generations  of  worshipping  Incas, 
should  have  been  ruthlessly  gambled  away  in  a  night 
by  one  of  the  Spanish  cavaliers  to  whom  this  treasure 
fell  as  his  share  of  the  looted  Temple. 

As  I  wandered  through  this  ancient  and  renowned 
edifice  which  now  forms  the  home  of  the  impoverished 
monks  of  St.  Dominic,  I  was  shown  not  only  the  sacred 
places  where  the  Sun  was  worshipped  by  the  Indians, 
but  there  was  also  pointed  out  the  place  where  the 
Moon,  the  Deity  held  next  in  reverence  as  the  mother 
of  the  Incas,  was  worshipped,  while  in  other  parts  of 
the  structure  were  the  chapels  dedicated  to  the  Stars, 
the  Lightning  and  the  Rainbow.  This  temple,  which 
was  once  the  glory  of  a  great  race,  has  now  fallen  into 
such  decay,  partaking  of  the  general  dilapidation  of 
this  ancient  seat  of  empire  in  Cuzco,  that  the  traveller 
must  needs  call  up  a  vivid  imagination  to  see  in  its 


346      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

crumbling  walls  the  resplendent  centre  of  the  Inca 
religion. 

It  has  been  stated  that  in  addition  to  this  great  Tem- 
ple of  the  Sun  in  Cuzco,  there  were  between  three  and 
four  hundred  additional  smaller  temples  in  the  Peru- 
vian capital  "where  every  fountain,  pathway  and  wall," 
according  to  an  ancient  chronicler,  uwas  regarded  as  a 
holy  mystery."  Cuzco  to  the  Peruvian  Indian  was 
what  Mecca  is  to  the  Mohammedan,  or  Benares  to  the 
Hindu.  When  it  fell,  the  Inca  empire  was  no  more, 
for  even  the  Inca  himself  was  but  the  great  high  priest 
who  officiated  in  the  House  of  the  Sun  in  Cuzco. 

The  religion  of  the  Incas  was  in  point  of  fact  a  re- 
markable religious  communism.  The  most  private  re- 
cesses of  the  domestic  life  were  searched  out  by  the 
light  of  this  ancient  faith.  Every  Peruvian,  however 
low  in  station,  was  reached  by  the  vigilance  of  the  gov- 
ernment, which  was  also  the  church  in  those  days. 
The  existence  of  the  individual  was  merged  into  that 
of  the  community.  Those  under  the  sway  of  the  Incas 
were  religiously  responsible  to  work  and  to  give  of 
the  products  of  their  labour  to  the  empire  and  to  the 
temple  worship.  After  certain  days  in  which  the  In- 
dian was  engaged  in  working  the  lands  of  the  church 
and  the  Inca,  he  then  was  forced  to  labour  a  certain 
number  of  days  on  the  lands  of  widows  and  orphans 
who  had  no  one  to  work  for  them.  This  traditional 
custom  has  made  doubtless  the  conditions  of  presejnt- 
day  Peru  more  palatable  to  the  Indian  than  they  would 
be  otherwise.  To-day  one  finds  the  general  custom 
of  parcelling  out  land  to  the  Indians  on  the  great  es- 
tates with  the  proviso  that  these  workers  will  give  at 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS     34*7 

the  request  of  their  landlords  such  labour  as  the  whole 
estate  requires. 

As  one  visits  the  Indians  of  southern  Peru  and  the 
tablelands  of  the  Cordilleras  to-day,  he  is  certain  to 
ask  himself  the  question  whether  the  later  condition 
of  these  descendants  of  the  original  inhabitants  of  Peru 
has  been  improved  by  reason  of  the  introduction  of  the 
religion  of  the  conquerors.  Cuzco,  as  well  as  other 
Peruvian  cities,  is  filled  with  temples  of  worship,  and 
the  Indian,  especially  true  to  his  nature  and  sentimental 
superstition,  is  found  in  considerable  numbers  in  these 
churches.  The  abject,  servile,  and  seemingly  supersti- 
tious awe  which  one  beholds  in  these  real  supporters 
of  the  modern  Peru,  bowing  with  their  heads  touching 
the  floors  of  the  modern  cathedral,  raises  a  question 
in  the  mind  of  the  traveller  as  to  the  real  value  of  this 
faith  to  the  Peruvian  inhabitants. 

One  will  be  told  of  many  incidents  now  occurring, 
especially  in  the  rural  parts  of  the  country,  leading  one 
to  believe  that  the  ancient  despotism  of  the  Inca  re- 
ligious lords  has  been  transferred  to  the  hands  of  the 
priests,  and  that  many  of  the  careful  and  solicitous 
habits  of  the  old  Inca  nobles  in  caring  for  their  subjects 
are  to-day  conspicuous  by  their  absence.  The  Indian, 
indeed,  seems  to  represent  but  one  value  in  the  eyes  of 
the  modern  Peruvian,  simply  a  means  through  which 
may  be  obtained  labour  free  of  charge,  or  money 
earned  by  the  work  of  a  beast  of  burden,  and  the 
priests,  instead  of  caring  for  these  helpless  children, 
seem  to  have  been  from  the  days  of  the  conquest  as- 
sociated intimately  with  the  oppressor. 

The  Indian  of  Peru  worships  blindly,  but  he  must 


348     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

worship.  One  Indian  when  asked  where  God  was, 
said  that  he  was  in  a  certain  church,  for  he  had  seen 
him  there.  The  religion  of  Peru  in  a  city  like  Lima 
is  far  different  than  that  which  one  finds  in  the  country- 
districts,  where  a  debased  Romanism  exists,  in  many 
cases  as  heathenish  as  could  have  been  seen  in  some  re- 
mote district  or  northern  hamlet  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire, where  rude  images  were  worshipped  with  ruder 
rites  by  rustics  who  had  half  forgotten  or  never  un- 
derstood their  original  meaning. 

Although  in  Peru  the  traveller  to-day  finds  many 
true  and  worthy  adherents  to  Christianity,  the  impres- 
sion that  deepens  in  one's  mind  as  he  goes  from  city 
to  town  and  throughout  the  rural  section,  is  that  relig- 
ion has  lost  its  reality  and  lives  to-day  all  too  largely  in 
ceremonial  and  artificial  veneer.  It  needs  something 
new  and  strong  and  original  coming  fresh  out  of  the 
heart  and  souls  of  men  who  have  seen  their  God 
through  some  personal  experience;  it  needs  something 
quite  different  from  blind  acceptance  of  customs  and 
the  frauds  of  former  Spanish  conquerors  to  save  Peru. 
Nature  has  brought  to  this  country  rich  stores  of  op- 
portunity; the  question  now  persists — Is  the  Peruvian 
of  to-day  large  enough  in  character  to  grasp  it?  As 
yet  he  seems  only  capable  to  touch  it  with  his  finger 
tips. 

The  trail  of  the  old  Spanish  conquest  still  lies  across 
the  land.  The  worship  of  things,  rather  than  the  ele- 
vation of  spiritual  accomplishment,  the  great  dearth  of 
men  who  are  willing  to  drudge  if  necessary  in  the  mill 
of  industry,  and  forgot  some  of  their  old-time  Spanish 
gentlemanhood  ideas  associated  with  undisciplined  and 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS    349 

easy  existence — these  are  the  dark  shadows  over  the 
new  Peru. 

Religion,  by  whatever  name  it  may  be  called,  pro- 
viding it  is  real,  must  bring  to  these  people  something 
more  than  traditional  polish  or  ceremonial  rites  and 
theology;  it  must  afford  them  with  a  compelling  and 
deep  moral  motive,  commanding  the  ideals  and  the  ac- 
tivities of  men.  Peru  needs  the  old  but  ever  new  re- 
ligion founded  upon  love,  and  built  within  the  narrow 
walls  of  a  human  heart. 

The  isolation  of  Chile,  the  long  "Sliver  Republic,'' 
has  had  an  effect  upon  its  religious  life.  The  outside 
cosmopolitan  currents,  which  have  been  flowing  strongly 
into  Argentina  and  Brazil  through  immigration  and 
sudden  advent  of  commercial  enterprise  on  the  part  of 
foreigners,  have  been  less  marked  on  the  West  Coast  of 
South  America.  Chile,  like  Peru,  despite  her  vigorous 
attempts  along  military  lines  to  convince  the  world  of 
her  modernity,  is  still  religiously  mediaeval.  The  dom- 
inance of  the  cathedral  and  the  omnipresence  of  the 
priest  are  significant  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
and  the  religious  absolutism  with  which  these  two  im- 
portant Spanish  American  countries  are  still  swayed. 

In  the  progressive  material  Argentina,  the  traveller 
is  amazed  to  witness  the  way  that  religion  has  receded 
before  the  wave  of  utilitarian  progress.  The  universi- 
ties are  proud,  not  of  their  ecclesiastical  connections, 
but  of  their  rationalism.  A  prominent  professor  of  the 
University  La  Plata  said  recently  that  he  was  de- 
voting his  life  to  the  eradication  from  his  country  of 
religion,  which  he  considered  had  cursed  and  re- 
strained his  nation's  progress.     In  Brazil  we  found 


350      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

that  the  men  were  not  even  religious  through  the  in- 
fluence of  the  women,  who  have  been  the  devoted  cham- 
pions of  Catholic  institutions  in  the  republics  south 
of  Panama.  Even  the  women  in  both  of  these  states 
seem  to  be  losing  their  adherence  to  the  church,  and 
to  my  question  to  many  of  the  Argentine  and  Brazilian 
wives  and  mothers,  "Do  you  go  to  church?"  the  nega- 
tive reply  often  was  given. 

While  in  Lima  or  in  Santiago,  the  visitor  is  first  im- 
pressed by  the  number  and  the  splendour  of  the 
churches,  in  Buenos  Aires  and  Rio  de  Janeiro  he  almost 
needs  a  guide  to  find  a  church,  and  the  chime  of  the 
cathedral  bells  is  drowned  by  the  roaring  wheels  of 
modern  industry. 

In  Chile,  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  old  Spanish 
families,  which  are  said  with  some  truth  to  rule  the 
country,  are  loyal  Catholics.  While  the  men  apparently 
are  not  overzealous  religionists,  their  women  are, 
and  the  feminine  element,  together  with  the  influence 
of  the  priestly  party,  constitutes  a  force  not  easy  to  be 
counteracted. 

We  were  talking  one  day  with  one  of  the  foremost 
lawyers  in  Chile,  a  man  who  had  travelled  widely  in 
the  countries  of  Europe  and  in  the  United  States.  He 
was  the  counsel  for  several  of  the  largest  foreign  firms 
doing  business  in  this  republic.  He  pointed  out  with 
utter  frankness  the  weakness  of  Chile's  politics  and  the 
danger  of  the  country  in  regard  to  depending  too  se- 
curely upon  its  great  nitrate  industry,  thereby  cutting 
the  nerve  of  initiative  and  independent  industry  on  the 
part  of  the  country's  youth;  but  when  we  came  to  the 
subject  of  the  church,  he  remarked:  "You  must  re- 


CATHEDRAL  FROM  PLAZA,  LTMA 


INTERIOR  OF  CATHEDRAL  AREQUIPA 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS    351 

member  that  this  is  a  Catholic  country  and  proud  of 
its  traditions;  we  are  all  loyal  to  the  religion  of  Chile." 

One  soon  learns  in  Chile  that  there  is  a  clerical  party 
in  politics,  a  newspaper  controlled  by  the  church,  and 
an  interweaving  of  government  and  ecclesiastical  effort 
in  many  of  the  leading  charitable  and  social  institu- 
tions. It  is  even  within  the  memory  of  present-day  in- 
habitants that,  as  the  religious  processions  passed,  the 
people  kneeled  in  the  street,  and  it  was  only  fifty  years 
ago  that  a  tall  board  fence  was  erected  before  a  Prot- 
estant mission  church  in  Valparaiso  for  fear  the  very 
sight  of  an  alien  meeting  house  would  contaminate  the 
people.  In  the  year  1867,  Protestant  church  services 
could  be  held  only  in  secret,  and  by  issuing  cards  of  in- 
vitation. 

In  the  Colonial  period  the  Roman  church  had  charge 
of  education  in  Chile;  it  taught  the  higher  classes  in 
mediaeval  studies,  Latin,  mediaeval  theology  and  phil- 
osophy, but  this  education  was  not  extended  to  the 
lower  classes.  To-day  it  is  fashionable  and  practically 
universal  for  the  old  wealthy  families  to  send  their 
children  to  Catholic  schools,  where  the  teaching,  ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  many  Chileans,  is  largely 
inferior  to  that  in  the  foreign  schools  or  in  the  govern- 
ment schools.  Emphasis  in  these  church  institutions  is 
strongly  placed  upon  religious  teaching  and  the  orna- 
mental and  literary  side  of  education,  the  memorising 
method  being  largely  in  use  and  at  variance  with  the 
development  of  independent  thought  on  the  part  of 
the  pupil. 

General  enlightenment  of  all  classes  is  handicapped 
to-day  in  Chile  because  of  the  fact  that  the  govern- 


352      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

merit  has  concentrated  its  attention  and  its  appropria- 
tions upon  the  higher  schools,  the  preparatory  institu- 
tions and  the  university.  A  fifteen  minutes'  walk  out  of 
the  city  limits  of  Santiago,  the  fair  Chilean  capital,  will 
reveal  conditions  of  poverty  and  ignorance  among  the 
lower  classes  of  population  akin  to  that  to  be  found  in 
the  country  districts  of  Peru,  where  the  same  tradi- 
tional ideas  of  indifference  toward  the  education  of  the 
masses  prevail.  It  is  significant  that  Chile  spends  less 
than  half  as  much  annually  for  education  as  does  Co- 
lumbia University. 

A  modern  factor  to  be  considered  in  noting  the  tend- 
ency of  religion  in  Chile,  is  that  of  the  Protestant 
church,  through  its  mission  stations,  its  city  churches, 
which  are  obtaining  native  pastors,  and  through  its 
schools  for  both  boys  and  girls,  which  are  growing  rap- 
idly in  favour  among  the  old  Spanish  families. 

Thirty  years  ago  there  were  only  two  Protestant 
churches  in  Chile,  with  but  fifty  members.  To-day 
there  are  seventy  churches  of  this  faith,  with  6,000 
communicants  and  a  Protestant  attendance  and  popu- 
lation of  20,000. 

There  is  government  protection  for  these  churches 
to-day,  and  many  of  the  laws  of  exemption  of  ecclesi- 
astical institutions  made  primarily  for  the  Catholic 
faith  alone  have  been  extended  to  the  Protestant  bod- 
ies. Musical  instruments,  like  organs,  for  use  in  the 
churches  established  by  missionaries  are  now  received 
free  from  duty.  While  there  is  still  at  times  a  mild 
type  of  persecution  of  the  promoters  of  the  Protestant 
faith,  especially  in  the  rural  districts,  cases  taken  to 
court  by  the  heads  of  missions,  where  property  has 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS     353 

been  destroyed  or  the  meetings  disturbed  by  bands 
of  irresponsibles,  instigated  by  fanatical  priests,  are 
usually  decided  on  their  merits  and  with  equal  justice 
by  Catholic  judges. 

The  newspapers  will  not  receive  advertisements 
for  Protestant  services,  but  space  is  given  for  events 
associated  with  such  bodies  as  the  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association,  and  from  my  conversations  with  many 
newspaper  editors,  I  judge  that  the  press  is  quite  as 
liberal  in  such  matters  as  the  people  at  large,  and  is 
only  restrained  by  the  very  powerful  influence  which 
the  Catholic  church  party  exerts  through  politics  and 
the  Chilean  home. 

The  missionaries  through  their  churches  have  done 
much  in  the  way  of  inaugurating  a  temperance  move- 
ment in  Chile,  and  have  sent  broadcast  through  the 
country  millions  of  pages  of  temperance  propaganda 
with  telling  effect.  In  this  movement  the  Protestants 
have  received  no  help  from  the  Roman  church,  since 
the  large  holdings  of  monastic  lands  of  this  body  are 
supported  by  wine-producing  vineyards,  and  the  farm- 
ers on  these  lands  are  strongly  in  favour  of  the  Catholic 
clerical  party.  A  venerable  missionary  pastor,  who 
came  down  to  Chile  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago  in  an  old  paddle-wheeled  boat  from  Callao,  went  so 
far  as  to  say  that  the  Catholic  church  in  Chile  was  built 
on  liquor.  Although  this  would  be  considered  a  parti- 
san and  extreme  statement  by  many,  we  have  been  in- 
terested to  note  that  in  each  case  where  we  have  found 
temperance  reform  measures  advocated  in  South  Amer- 
ica, the  exponents  have  not  been  from  the  ranks  of  the 
prevailing  state   religion.      In  Argentina   temperance 


354      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

agitation  has  gained  considerable  headway,  led  by  a 
man  whose  views  are  quite  inclined  toward  socialism. 

The  writer  visited  the  first  theological  seminary  to 
be  founded  in  Chile  to  train  Chileans  to  become  Protest- 
ant preachers.  This  institution  was  recently  estab- 
lished as  a  union  church  effort,  and  the  heads  of  several 
foreign  mission  schools,  together  with  several  mission- 
ary pastors,  give  their  time  gratis  as  teachers. 

The  building  is  unpretentious,  and  the  Chileans,  who 
hold  the  Latin  American  ideas  of  pretentious  edifices 
in  which  to  house  their  institutions,  are  said  to  be  al- 
most ashamed  to  be  seen  coming  out  of  it,  but  in  this 
handful  of  Chilean  youth  which  are  being  trained  here 
for  Protestant  church  leadership,  the  missionaries  see 
a  far-reaching  movement  in  the  strengthening  of  their 
order.  A  scholarly  Presbyterian  pastor,  graduate  of 
Yale,  and  carrying  on  his  own  church  in  the  city  of  San- 
tiago, is  teaching  sixteen  hours  a  week  in  this  first 
Protestant  theological  school  to  be  founded  on  the 
West  Coast.  He  seemed  to  reflect  the  opinions  of 
William  Carey,  who  thought  that  the  establishment  of 
his  theological  school  just  outside  of  Calcutta  was  the 
most  important  service  of  his  life. 

Among  the  most  important  influences  affecting  the 
tendency  of  religion  in  Chile,  are  the  mission  schools, 
carried  on  largely  in  English  and  presided  over  by 
efficient  teachers  from  the  United  States. 

The  Instituto  Ingles,  founded  in  1877,  situated  in 
Santiago,  had  as  its  president  Dr.  W.  E.  Browning,  a 
Princeton  man,  and  enrols  several  hundred  boys,  the 
majority  of  them  from  the  higher  classes  of  Chileans.  I 
visited  the  dormitories  where  100  boys  live  under  sur- 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS    355 

roundings  resembling  those  of  our  best  preparatory  in- 
stitutions in  America,  and  also  witnessed  a  basketball 
game  by  these  students  on  their  athletic  field  which  gave 
no  impression  of  being  mediaeval. 

This  flourishing  institution  draws  its  students  from 
all  parts  of  South  America,  having  twenty-four  dif- 
ferent nationalities  represented  among  its  boys,  and  the 
school  is  self-supporting.  The  school  pays  the  ex- 
penses of  American  teachers,  young  college  men  who 
come  down  on  three  year  periods  for  teaching,  and 
many  students  remain  under  the  influence  of  this  in- 
struction for  seven  years.  The  working  principle  of 
the  institution,  which  is  highly  regarded  in  Chile,  is  thus 
stated  by  the  president,  "We  never  try  to  prosely- 
tise. We  put  facts  before  the  boys,  and  let  them  decide 
for  themselves."  As  many  of  the  boys  come  from  por- 
tions of  this  and  other  republics  where  the  same  value 
is  not  placed  upon  bathing  as  in  certain  parts  of  the 
world,  the  president  took  pride  in  showing  the  fine 
swimming  pool,  which  was  in  popular  use. 

The  Santiago  College  for  girls  is  founded  on  the 
same  general  principles  as  the  Instituto  Ingles,  and  has 
upwards  of  400  young  women  who  are  being  taught 
entirely  in  English,  which  is  the  chief  drawing  card. 
This  institution,  which  has  been  carrying  on  its  ef- 
ficient work  in  the  capital  city  of  Chile  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  is  revealing  increasingly  the  tendency  of 
Chilean  parents  to  break  away  from  the  traditional 
seclusion  for  their  girls  which  has  held  fast  the  family 
life  for  generations.  The  choice  of  modern  methods 
and  an  institution  where  a  type  of  religion  other  than 
that  dominant  in  the  country  is  held,  if  not  aggressively 


356      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

taught,  also  marks  a  broader  trend  of  religious  tol- 
erance. 

The  tendency  of  the  Roman  faith  in  Chile  must  be 
necessarily  toward  a  more  liberal  interpretation  of  its 
creed  if  it  is  to  survive  the  expanding  life  of  this  vig- 
orous republic.  The  opening  of  the  Panama  Canal 
is  only  one  of  the  recent  modernising  influences  which 
is  affecting  this  country.  Foreign  business  is  coming 
more  and  more  rapidly,  and  the  American  is  renewing 
the  hold  which  he  had  in  former  days  upon  this  land 
so  rich  in  mineral  and  agricultural  possibilities. 

Chile  is  now  in  a  stage  of  awakening.  She  is  in  a 
transition  from  an  era  of  absolute  authority  and  insti- 
tutionalism  to  a  state  of  affairs  more  nearly  resembling 
a  true  republic.  The  country  has  been  too  highly  in- 
stitutionalised to  allow  of  individual  development.  The 
Catholic  church  in  Chile  has  been  and  still  is  in  a 
degree  a  political  social  machine.  It  has  been  well- 
nigh  synonymous  with  the  government,  which  has 
contributed  largely  to  its  support  and  protected  it  as 
a  national  institution  whose  interests  were  bound  up 
with  those  of  the  old  ruling  families.  Even  now  one 
will  be  amazed  to  find  the  way  in  which  authoritative 
measures  rule.  If  there  is  need  of  any  social  move- 
ment, the  government  takes  it  in  hand.  Even  a  feast 
or  a  celebration  such  as  in  the  United  States  would  be 
initiated  by  a  group  of  individuals,  in  Chile  is  a  gov- 
ernment or  a  church  affair. 

The  test  of  a  religion  is  in  its  results  upon  the  peo- 
ple. The  results  of  the  Chilean  state  religion  have  been 
to  absorb  individual  initiative,  and  to  stifle  the  inde- 
pendent religious  sense  of  the  citizen — a  condition  that 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS    357 

cannot  long  exist  in  a  progressing  civilisation.  The 
Chileans  are  already  becoming  restless  under  a  semi- 
oligarchical  rule  of  Church  and  State.  That  they  will 
sooner  or  later  like  Argentina  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
church  authority,  separating  Church  from  State,  is 
practically  certain.  Undoubtedly  the  Roman  church 
will  adjust  itself  to  the  new  demands.  If  not  its  doom 
is  sealed.  At  any  event,  as  these  changes  come,  there 
will  be  a  period  of  indifference  if  not  of  agnosticism, 
and  as  in  the  neighbouring  republic  across  the  Andes, 
a  cheap  and  distressing  form  of  infidelity,  as  the  relig- 
ious pendulum  swings  to  the  other  extreme. 

Constructive  education  for  all  classes  will  help  might- 
ily in  the  years  just  ahead.  Less  formal  and  ceremo- 
nial religion,  and  more  of  the  religion  of  character- 
making  will  be  required.  As  one  Chilean  said  of  his 
countrymen,  "We  are  too  religious,  but  not  moral 
enough." 

The  religion  of  Chile  will  be  adequate  or  inade- 
quate for  her  future  needs  in  accordance  as  individual 
conscience  is  aroused,  and  voluntary  personal  faith 
takes  the  place,  now  held  by  rigid  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority. 

Argentina,  more  than  any  other  South  American 
country  We  have  visited,  seems  to  have  renounced  the 
medievalism  of  the  South  American  republics,  ex- 
changing it  for  the  most  up-to-date  modernity.  The 
flavour  of  antiquity  found  in  Peru,  Bolivia  and  Chile 
has  been  dissipated  here  by  reason  of  the  inflow  of 
twentieth-century  life  from  Europe  and  the  United 
States. 

Argentina  is  a  child  of  the  present.     Lord  Bryce 


358      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

has  called  her  "The  United  States  of  the  Southern 
Hemisphere." 

This  modern  difference  from  the  South  American  re- 
publics on  the  West  Coast  is  especially  noticeable  in  the 
field  of  religion.  Religiously  Argentina  makes  little 
or  no  impression  upon  the  visitor.  To  be  sure  there 
is  a  fashion  of  religious  worship  here,  especially  among 
the  older  families  of  the  "estancia"  class.  Roman 
Catholicism  is  also  declared  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
republic  to  be  supported  by  the  State  and  the  President 
and  Vice-President  are  required  to  profess  this  faith. 
There  are,  however,  no  strictures  placed  upon  any 
other  form  of  religious  worship,  such  as  are  found  in 
Peru,  for  example ;  there  is  no  political  party  allied 
with  the  clergy  and  the  influence  of  the  priests  is  not 
felt  to  any  extent  in  the  realm  of  politics. 

One  gets  the  impression  before  remaining  long  in 
this  exceedingly  progressive  and  materialistic  atmos- 
phere that  the  men  of  the  country  regard  generally  the 
Catholic  church  as  one  of  the  remains  of  an  old  Span- 
ish world.  It  is  a  creation  of  the  past,  and  to  that  ex- 
tent, interesting,  and  to  be  retained  as  a  traditional  ac- 
companiment of  other  institutions,  but  having  little 
relation  to  daily  life  and  conduct.  As  one  Argentine 
put  it,  "We  are  quite  willing  that  the  church  exists  so 
long  as  it  does  not  interfere  with  business  and  politics." 

The  theology  of  the  Roman  organisation  is  almost 
a  dead  letter  in  the  minds  of  the  educated  classes,  and 
the  priests,  who  rule  the  people  of  the  West  Coast  of 
South  America  by  making  them  more  or  less  blindly 
submissive  to  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  another  cen- 
tury, are  failing  quite  completely  to  hold  the  new  for- 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS    359 

ward-looking  spirit  of  Argentina.  The  old  fiery  vigour 
and  pious  devotion  of  the  early  Conquistadores,  who 
brought  with  their  adventurous  love  of  gold  certain 
outward  marks  of  piety  at  least,  are  conspicuous  by 
their  absence  in  this  atmosphere  of  newness  and  utili- 
tarian progress. 

The  deities  which  are  worshipped  primarily  in  the 
beautiful  and  ostentatious  capital  of  Buenos  Aires,  are 
pleasure  and  money.  Other  terms  for  these  are  horse 
racing  and  the  activities  connected  with  the  great  cattle- 
raising  industry  on  the  old  "estancias."  There  is,  to  be 
sure,  a  certain  amount  of  civic  idealism,  for  the  Por- 
tenos,  as  the  inhabitants  of  Buenos  Aires  are  styled, 
are  outdone  by  none  in  their  pride  of  municipal  im- 
provements; but  here  idealism  seems  to  end.  As  for 
religious  or  spiritual  aims,  the  United  States,  where 
the  worldly  gods  are  also  worshipped  devotedly,  re- 
veals far  more  the  tendency  to  build  habitations  for  the 
dwellings  of  the  spirit  and  religion.  This  may  be  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  first  settlers  who  came  to  the  shores 
of  New  England  were  impelled  hither  by  ideas  and 
ideals  quite  different  from  those  that  actuated  the  early 
Spanish  pioneers  to  South  America ;  it  may  be  due  also 
to  the  fact  that  Argentina  is  at  present  in  a  transition 
stage  and  the  dazzling  of  her  new  wealth  has  caused 
her  for  the  moment  to  forget  that  the  spiritual  needs 
of  a  people  require  satisfaction. 

Surely  at  present  one  finds  few  indications  that  would 
lead  one  to  believe  that  Argentina  was  giving  herself 
any  concern  regarding  the  condition  of  her  religious 
life. 

The  result  of  this  indifference  is  apparent  in  many 


360      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

directions.  The  lack  of  any  personal  acquaintance  with 
the  Bible  is  patent. 

A  prominent  journal  of  Buenos  Aires  began  recently 
to  print  quotations  from  the  Bible  in  its  columns  with- 
out giving  the  source.  Shortly  after  a  letter  was  re- 
ceived from  a  gentleman  in  another  city  of  the  re- 
public who  evidently  had  some  degree  of  education, 
asking  the  editor  from  what  book  these  quotations 
were  taken  and  inquiring  where  he  could  secure  a  copy 
of  a  book  containing  such  illuminating  and  helpful 
ideas.  The  paper  continued  these  quotations  from  the 
Scriptures  and  the  readers  of  the  journal  have  become 
particularly  interested  in  the  discovery  of  a  literature 
which  heretofore  has  been  almost  entirely  unknown  to 
many  of  them.  This  is  a  reminder  of  the  fact, 
which  is  brought  home  vividly  to  those  who  travel  in 
the  republics  on  the  West  Coast,  that  the  Spanish 
American  republic  received  a  Catholicism  from  Spain 
and  Portugal  which  was  guided  almost  entirely  by  the 
clergy  who  studied  their  Bibles  in  Latin  and  closed 
them  almost  impregnably  to  the  laity. 

Among  the  students  of  this  republic,  I  found  a  simi- 
lar lamentable  ignorance  regarding  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures. A  friend  of  mine  went  with  a  student  to  his 
steamer  as  the  young  man  was  about  to  sail  for  Eu- 
rope. The  Argentine  student  had  in  his  hand  a  copy 
of  Victor  Hugo,  portions  of  which,  he  declared,  he  had 
formed  the  habit  of  reading  each  night  before  retiring, 
as  a  means  of  literary  and  spiritual  stimulation.  My 
friend  who  had  a  Testament  in  his  pocket  suggested 
that  the  student  should  make  the  experiment  of  read- 
ing parts  of  the  Gospel  in  like  manner.    To  his  amaze- 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS    361 

ment  he  found  that  the  student  had  never  as  much  as 
opened  the  Bible,  but  was  destined  to  get  absolutely 
his  first  impression  of  this  remarkable  literature  in 
reading  this  New  Testament  on  his  steamer  voyage. 

Lecky  has  said,  "The  record  of  three  choice  years 
of  the  active  life  of  Jesus  has  done  more  to  regenerate 
and  soften  mankind  than  all  the  disquisitions  of  philos- 
ophers and  all  the  exploitations  of  moralists."  To 
appreciate  that  the  youth  of  one  of  the  most  promising 
nations  should  be  at  present  in  almost  blank  ignorance 
of  a  book  which  has  so  deeply  influenced  human  civili- 
sation, is  certainly  a  pathetic  experience. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  students,  six  hundred  in  num- 
ber, of  the  University  of  Buenos  Aires,  furnish  a  field 
for  labour  along  religious  lines.  These  students  are 
scattered  throughout  a  large  pleasure-loving  and  ma- 
terialistic city  rarely  under  any  supervision  or  moral 
control.  While  they  have  turned  their  backs  upon  the 
Catholic  religion  of  the  country  because  of  its  obscur- 
antism and  bigotry,  they  have  as  yet  found  no  positive 
faith  to  take  its  place.  They  have  put  off  the  old  with- 
out taking  on  new  religious  beliefs  and  are  ready  disci- 
ples to  rationalism  and  agnosticism  and  also  to  social- 
istic and  anarchistic  tendencies,  all  of  which  are  not 
foreign  to  the  thought  and  activities  of  the  educated 
portion  of  Argentina's  inhabitants. 

The  professors  in  the  higher  institutions  of  learning 
are  one  with  the  students  in  their  disregard  of  religion 
of  any  kind.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the  teachers 
openly  teach  agnosticism  and  rationalism  in  their 
classes.  The  tide  of  indifference  and  even  antagonism 
to  constructive  religious  faith  has  risen  so  high  in  this 


362      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

country  that  we  find  men  like  the  Vice-Rector  of 
La  Plata  University  warning  his  countrymen  concern- 
ing the  effect  which  this  type  of  thinking  is  sure  to  have 
upon  the  character  of  the  country's  youth. 

"It  is  with  great  sadness,"  said  this  Vice-Rector  in 
one  of  his  recent  opening  addresses  of  the  college  year, 
"that  I  witness  the  steady  decrease  in  the  number  of 
unselfish,  idealistic,  genuine  men;  how  engulfing  the 
tide  of  selfishness,  of  rebellion,  of  indiscipline,  and  of 
insatiable  ambition;  impunity  so  commonly  supplants 
justice  that  I  fear  for  the  spiritual  future  of  the  land 
of  my  children,  unless  we  make  haste  to  remedy  the 
great  evil,  which  is  disregard  for  the  noble,  and  the 
great  and  unmeasured  lust  for  material  riches." 

One  of  the  teachers  in  the  university  told  me  that 
the  immigrant  coming  to  Argentina  with  his  Old 
World  custom  of  worship,  loses  almost  entirely  his 
religion  after  he  has  been  in  the  country  for  two  or 
three  years.  We  were  surprised  to  find  that  here,  con- 
trary to  the  conditions  found  in  every  one  of  the  re- 
publics west  of  the  Andes,  the  women  representing  the 
educated  classes,  at  least,  have  very  little  interest  in  re- 
ligion, and  the  majority  of  them  will  tell  you  that  they 
never  go  to  church.  The  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation, which  enrols  a  thousand  members  in  Buenos 
Aires,  seventy-five  per  cent  of  whom  are  Argentines, 
has  not  been  able  to  get  hold  religiously  of  the  edu- 
cated men,  and  the  secretaries  will  tell  you  that  this 
forms  one  of  the  most  discouraging  features  of  their 
work.  Plans  are  now  shaping  to  give  particular  atten- 
tion to  the  crying  spiritual  needs  of  these  students,  and 
an  Argentine   secretary   of   advanced   education   and 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS     368 

training  both  in  Europe  and  in  the  United  States  has 
been  engaged  to  devote  his  time  exclusively  to  the  far- 
reaching  work  of  acquainting  the  Argentine  university- 
men,  in  a  personal  way,  with  the  Protestant  faith. 

Among  the  old  families  there  is  a  certain  fashion  of 
church  attendance  which  is  not  unconnected  with  social 
prestige.  The  Catholic  church  also  is  showing  signs 
of  modern  adaptation  and  of  adjusting  itself  to  the 
spirit  of  the  twentieth  century  in  a  way  that  would  be 
scarcely  possible  in  certain  of  the  more  strict  Catholic 
republics.  For  example,  I  attended  a  large  meeting 
of  boy  scouts  in  the  cathedral  in  Buenos  Aires. 

A  common  usage  among  fashionable  people,  linking 
them  to  the  church,  is  the  holding  of  a  choral  mass 
on  the  anniversary  of  the  death  of  a  relative.  Invi- 
tations are  sent  to  all  of  the  friends  of  the  family  and 
the  social  acquaintances,  the  church  is  most  elaborately 
decorated,  and  the  event  takes  on  the  atmosphere  of  a 
social  function.  It  can  be  indulged  in  only  by  the 
wealthy,  as  the  cost  is  great. 

Among  the  foreign  institutions  that  are  doing  good 
work  in  stemming  the  tide  of  religious  indifference,  are 
the  mission  schools  conducted  by  foreigners,  the  Amer- 
ican Church,  which  has  a  strong  hold  upon  a  wide  circle 
of  English  and  American  residents,  and  a  number  of 
private  educational  efforts  like  the  lnstituto  Ward, 
where  commercial  education  is  given  to  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  boys,  many  of  whom  are  sons  of  the  wealthy 
landholders. 

We  were  interested  in  visiting  this  latter  institution 
to  find  among  the  teachers  an  ex-Catholic  priest  who 
had  embraced  Protestant  Christianity  and  was  most  de- 


364      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

voted  to  his  work  of  teaching  Catholic  boys.  He  in- 
formed us  that  he  believed  that  there  were  many  priests 
of  the  Roman  church  who  would  gladly  leave  that 
faith  to-day  in  this  country  if  they  could  find  anything 
else  to  do  in  order  to  earn  a  living.  The  character  of 
their  training  had  been  almost  entirely  along  ecclesias- 
tical and  unpractical  lines  and  when  they  sought  em- 
ployment outside  the  church  or  monastery,  they  found 
themselves  practically  helpless.  The  condition  is 
stated  as  follows : 

"The  loss  of  persecuting  power  and  prestige  by  the 
established  church,  the  extension  of  education,  com- 
mercial relations,  contact  with  foreigners  and  acquain- 
tance with  us  and  our  work,  have  replaced  suspicion 
with  confidence.  There  is  some  awakening  to  the  fact 
that  the  needs  of  the  people  religiously  have  not  been 
met.  This  field  is  absolutely  open  for  evangelical 
work  in  all  parts,  provided  it  is  carried  on  with  suffi- 
cient means  and  in  a  sufficiently  dignified  way  to  de- 
mand respect,  but  the  work  must  be  of  an  increasingly 
higher  grade,  more  thoroughly  educational  and  scien- 
tific, and  with  churches  and  schools  of  adequate  im- 
portance and  equipment  to  command  respect  in  lands 
where  public  buildings  are  always  noteworthy.  On  the 
other  hand  the  growth  of  indifference  and  irreligion 
has  been  so  rapid  that  there  is  a  large  class  of  the  more 
highly  educated  people  entirely  inaccessible  to  the  Gos- 
pel message  under  present  conditions." 

Those  who  would  help  this  "Amazing  Argentina', 
of  to-day  must  approach  her  with  the  realisation  that 
they  will  find  in  this  republic  an  exhibition  of  external 
materialism  that  combines  the  worship  of  pleasure 
found  in   Paris  with  the   devotion  to  money-getting 


THE  RELIGION  OF  SOUTH  AMERICANS     365 

seen  in  the  most  utilitarian  sections  of  the  United 
States.  They  will  find  here  a  people  alert,  intellectual 
and  ready  for  every  new  thing  in  science,  in  education 
and  in  the  fine  arts  of  life.  It  is  a  people  that  have 
had  their  fill  of  ceremonial  religion,  which  has  not  satis- 
fied the  cravings  of  either  the  intellect  or  the  soul. 
In  few  countries  is  there  a  more  insistent  need  for  a 
religion  that  reveals  itself  in  character.  The  reaction 
time  from  all  this  lust  of  the  world  and  the  pride  of 
life  is  already  beginning  to  be  evident  in  Argentina. 
He  who  can  help  her  in  the  discovery  of  a  new  and  sat- 
isfying religious  idealism  will  be  her  lasting  friend. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

SOUTH    AMERICANS    AT   SCHOOL 

The  world  is  founded  on  thoughts  and  ideas,  not  on  cotton 
and  iron. — Emerson. 

IN  speaking  with  a  teacher  in  the  one  normal  school 
for  men  in  Peru,  situated  in  Lima,  I  asked,  "What 
would  you  do  if  you  had  the  power  to  advance  edu- 
cational interests  in  Peru?" 

He  answered,  "I  would  advocate  having  the  gov- 
ernment send  fifty  students  a  year  for  five  or  ten  years 
to  the  United  States  to  receive  thorough  training,  espe- 
cially in  scientific  education;  this  in  order  that  they 
might  come  back  as  teachers  and  heads  of  technical  in- 
stitutions to  lead  a  new  systematic  educational  move- 
ment along  practical,  modern  lines. " 

As  a  matter  of  fact  I  found  that  the  teacher  who 
gave  me  this  answer,  with  three  other  men,  had  been  in 
the  United  States  in  prominent  institutions  and  had  re- 
turned to  their  country  expecting  to  take  certain  execu- 
tive educational  positions  where  they  would  have  the 
opportunity  of  wielding  certain  influence.  On  the  con- 
trary these  men,  with  one  exception,  were  placed  in 
small  schools  in  the  country  and  were  looked  upon  with 
suspicion  by  the  Peruvians,  who  considered  that  they 

366 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL  36T 

represented  new  and  radical  ideas  not  in  line  with  Peru- 
vian conditions. 

If  there  had  been  several  hundred  of  these  men  in- 
stead of  four,  they  would  have  been  able,  undoubtedly, 
to  have  impressed  their  ideas  and  to  have  formed  a 
leaven  for  a  real  organised  system  of  national  educa- 
tion, which  the  country  lacks  at  present. 

The  normal  school  to  which  reference  is  made  con- 
tains, as  I  found  by  investigation,  eighty-five  teachers, 
and  these  teachers  give  instruction  to  several  hundred 
pupils  in  model  schools,  where  the  teachers  are  given 
their  practice.  It  is  a  government  school,  like  virtu- 
ally all  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  in  Peru,  and 
the  normal  teachers  receive  forty-five  dollars  a  month 
with  little  opportunity  for  advancement  in  salary.  Free 
tuition  and  board  are  given  to  the  prospective  teachers, 
who  come  from  different  parts  of  the  country. 

In  addition  to  this  normal  school  for  boys  there  are 
three  normal  schools  for  girls  in  Peru,  one  in  Lima, 
one  in  Arequipa,  and  one  in  Cuzco.  These  latter  schools 
are  carried  on  by  nuns,  although  paid  by  the  state. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  church  schools  in 
Peru  educate  the  boys  and  girls  of  the  aristocratic  fam- 
ilies, and  no  one  above  the  labouring  class  would  think 
of  sending  his  son  or  daughter  for  primary  education  to 
schools  other  than  those  carried  on  by  the  Catholic 
church.  Some  of  these  schools  are  said  to  be  very 
good  ones,  but  the  predominance  of  religious  teaching 
narrows  the  curriculum,  and  when  the  students  of  these 
schools  enter  the  colleges,  or  what  we  would  call  the 
higher  preparatory  schools,  or  begin  their  study  of 
law,  medicine  and  engineering  in  the  various  depart- 


368      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

ments  of  the  university,  they  are  said  to  under- 
go a  severe  wrench  in  their  mental  point  of  view,  the 
young  men  usually  inclining  towards  an  agnostic  po- 
sition. 

One  progressive  Peruvian  in  speaking  of  these 
church  schools  said  rather  frankly: 

"These  institutions  are  helping  to  keep  Peru  in  the 
benighted  condition  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages." 

The  progressives  in  relation  to  Peruvian  education 
believe  that  there  must  be  a  more  decisive  separation 
between  education  and  politics  before  great  progress 
can  be  made.  At  present  the  politicians  who  control 
education  are  responsible  for  this  department  along 
with  two  or  three  other  political  departments,  and  they 
are  often  ignorant  even  of  the  location  of  the  schools 
for  which  they  are  responsible.  It  is  necessary  to  have 
political  influence  in  order  to  get  a  position  as  teacher 
or  even  to  obtain  the  scholarship  that  admits  a  student 
to  membership  in  the  normal  schools  of  the  country. 

Furthermore,  the  appointees  of  the  department  of 
education  are  supposed  to  be  the  political  henchmen 
as  well  as  teachers  for  the  government  in  power,  and 
it  is  the  natural  tendency  for  the  head  of  education  to 
appoint  teachers  who  can  be  depended  upon  for 
political  service. 

A  recent  attempt  has  been  made  to  bring  over  teach- 
ers from  France,  Germany  and  Belgium.  I  found  a 
dozen  or  more  German  teachers  in  the  Collegio  Na- 
cional  de  Guadaloupe,  the  chief  high  school  of  Lima. 
None  of  these  teachers,  however,  are  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  the  country  or  the  point  of  view  of  the 
people  and  the  chief  aim  of  each  one  of  these  instruc- 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL 

tors  seemed  to  be  to  inaugurate  in  the  school  his  na- 
tional system  of  education,  quite  regardless  of  whether 
or  not  it  fits  the  condition  of  the  country. 

There  is  special  need  at  present  in  Peru  for  an  or- 
ganised educational  system  dividing  the  country  into 
districts  and  placing  over  them  competent  heads.  This 
is  especially  necessary  for  the  Indians  who  compose  at 
least  two  million  of  the  three  and  one  half  million  in- 
habitants of  Peru.  At  present  comparatively  little 
along  educational  lines  is  being  done  for  these  people, 
while  the  alcohol  of  the  white  man  is  being  the  means 
of  their  deterioration.  To  be  sure,  the  Catholic 
church  is  doing  some  work  among  the  Indians  and  has 
schools  for  them  in  certain  districts,  but  I  was  unable 
to  find  indication  of  any  training  worth  the  name  in 
industrial  arts  and  along  practical  lines  of  agriculture 
and  manual  training  so  necessary  for  the  Indian.  These 
Indians  are  both  active  and  also  industrious,  and  they 
only  need  guidance  and  schools  fitted  to  their  require- 
ments to  make  them  important  factors  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  country  districts  of  Peru.  It  is  said  that 
five  per  cent  of  the  general  income  of  Peru  is  supposed 
to  go  for  education,  or  a  total  of  $1,500,000.  It  would 
seem  a  matter  of  strategic  foresight  to  expend  im- 
mediately a  goodly  percentage  of  this  amount  for  the 
industrial  training  of  the  Indians,  especially  in  the 
light  of  the  enlarging  commercial  possibilities  of  the 
country  in  such  industries  as  cotton,  sugar,  agricultural 
products  and  mining. 

The  college  in  Peru  is  hardly  what  the  term  signi- 
fies in  the  United  States.  These  institutions  are  little 
more  than  high  schools  or  preparatory  schools  to  the 


370      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

university,  which  in  turn  corresponds  more  nearly  to 
our  professional  schools. 

The  Collegio  Nacional  de  Guadaloupe  contains 
seven  hundred  students,  with  boarding  facilities  to  ac- 
commodate three  hundred  and  fifty  students.  It  is  a 
government  institution,  and  the  excellent  plant  is  said 
to  have  cost  $1,500,000.  It  is  built  somewhat  on  the 
plan  of  the  European  universities,  with  courts  or  patios 
in  the  centre,  giving  good  light  and  air.  The  buildings 
are  of  brick  and  the  gardens  are  filled  with  flowers  and 
palms.  The  course  consists  of  four  years,  and  the 
training  is  in  the  hands  of  teachers,  European  and  Pe- 
ruvian, comparing  favourably  with  those  in  preparatory 
institutions  in  the  United  States  or  Europe. 

A  visit  to  Lima  is  incomplete  without  a  study  of  the 
old  University  of  San  Marcos,  founded  by  Spanish 
friars  in  the  reign  of  Charles  V,  on  May  12th,  155 1. 
This  university  contains  departments  for  law,  science, 
medicine,  and  letters,  the  departments  of  law  and  let- 
ters being  by  far  the  most  popular.  I  asked  a  large 
number  of  men  what  they  considered  to  be  the  ruling 
ideals  of  Peruvian  students  as  they  were  found  in  the 
high  schools  and  the  university.  The  answer,  almost 
invariably,  was :    "They  want  to  be  politicians." 

The  university  course  at  San  Marcos  ranges  from 
five  to  seven  years,  and  covers  more  ground  than  is 
usually  attempted  in  our  professional  schools  in  the 
United  States.  In  fact,  it  would  seem  that  the  attempt 
is  made  to  cover  too  much  ground  theoretically  and 
not  to  give  sufficient  attention  to  the  practical  applica- 
tion of  certain  fundamental  principles. 

There  are  at  present  about  three  hundred  students 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL         371 

studying  at  the  main  university.  These  students  are 
not  possessed  with  college  spirit,  and  anything  like  col- 
lege "yells,"  songs,  or  student  fraternities  are  virtu- 
ally unknown  to  them ;  one  student  who  had  studied  in 
the  "States"  said  to  me:  "I  never  heard  the  word  alma 
mater  used  by  any  student  in  Peru." 

Although  the  examinations  are  said  to  be  rather  stiff, 
the  college  course  is  spread  over  so  long  a  period  that 
there  is  ample  opportunity  for  students  to  engage  in 
other  occupation.  There  are  rarely  more  than  two 
lectures  a  day  for  each  student  to  attend,  and  only  four 
or  five  courses  during  the  entire  year.  One  university 
student,  with  whom  I  talked,  in  addition  to  keeping  up 
his  lectures  at  the  university,  holds  two  positions  in  two 
other  schools  of  the  city  where  he  teaches ;  he  also  tu- 
tors the  sons  of  one  of  the  officials.  One  young  man, 
who  was  the  regular  newspaper  reporter  on  one  of  the 
leading  dailies,  told  me  that  he  also  was  a  student  at 
the  university,  where  he  was  studying  law. 

One  does  not  find  among  these  students  any  such 
thing  as  self-supporting  work  in  order  to  secure  a  col- 
lege course.  Nothing  for  example  like  the  waiting  on 
tables  at  a  college  boarding  house  or  the  caring  for 
a  furnace,  or  the  doing  of  a  score  of  things  which  the 
American  student  is  often  eager  to  do  in  order  to  sup- 
port himself  through  college.  This  would  be  so  much 
against  the  custom  of  these  Peruvian  students  that  the 
youth  would  immediately  lose  caste  amongst  his  fel- 
lows. One  is  told  that  even  the  carrying  of  a  bundle 
of  books  is  considered  by  students  as  below  their  dig- 
nity. 

Among  the  most  important  and  efficient  institutions, 


372      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

visited  in  Peru  were  the  Technical  School  and  the 
School  of  Arts  and  Trades  in  Lima.  These  schools 
are  directly  along  the  line  of  Peru's  present  needs,  and 
in  addition  to  their  courses  of  training  toward  the  end 
of  making  efficient  mining  and  electrical  engineers  and 
trained  commercial  agents,  these  institutions  are  as- 
sisting the  government  in  many  useful  researches  and 
experiments. 

The  University  of  Cuzco,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  institutions  in  Peru,  was  founded  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  enrols  at  present  two  hundred 
students.  The  students  are  studying  chiefly  in  two  de- 
partments, law  and  letters,  the  study  of  law  being  by 
far  the  most  popular. 

Situated  on  the  old  cathedral  Plaza  and  attached  to 
one  of  the  ancient  churches  of  the  Spanish  colonial 
period,  to  which  there  is  said  to  be  an  underground 
passage  to  the  cathedral  next  door,  this  old  university 
breathes  the  air  of  other  days.  Across  the  entrance 
within  the  first  court  the  visitor  reads  the  words 

"LIBERTAD.    IQUALIDAD     FRATERNADAD." 

It  would  seem  at  first  that  this  motto  was  incon- 
sistent with  the  authoritative  religious  intolerance  of 
the  church,  with  which  this  old  Jesuit  building  was 
so  closely  connected.  But  upon  further  inquiry  and 
study  of  the  situation  one  finds  here  a  body  of  stu- 
dents and  professors  who,  as  a  whole,  are  probably 
more  free  from  religious  domination  of  any  sort  than 
any  similar  body  to  be  found  in  the  United  States. 

"Have  you  any  religious  teaching  in  the  univer- 


A  CLASS  IN  AN  AMERICAN  GIRLS'  SCHOOL  IN  SANTIAGO 


AN  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE,  SAO  PAULO 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL  373 

sity?"  I  asked  of  the  American  Rector,  Dr.  Alberto 
A.  Giesecke,  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

"No,"  was  the  decided  reply  of  the  rector,  "the 
students  would  not  endure  the  introduction  of  any  re- 
ligious teaching,  and  should  they  be  willing,  the  pro- 
fessors would  veto  it  immediately.  Our  students  are 
for  the  most  part  indifferent  to  the  Catholic  church  or 
to  any  religion  and  would  probably  be  called  free 
thinkers,  if  not  agnostic." 

Indeed,  it  was  not  long  ago  that  this  ancient  town 
of  the  Incas  was  thrown  into  considerable  excitement 
by  reason  of  a  fight  between  the  students  of  the  uni- 
versity and  the  priests  when  the  attempt  was  made  by 
the  university  men  to  set  fire  to  one  of  the  churches, 
the  disturbance  being  calmed  only  after  the  soldiers 
were  called  out.  Virtually  any  student  with  whom  one 
talks  will  hasten  to  say  that  the  university  stands  for 
modern  science  and  academic  learning  at  the  present 
day.  It  is  a  type  of  education  centuries  removed  from 
that  practised  by  the  church  teachers  in  the  religious 
schools. 

The  support  of  the  university  is  by  the  government 
and  the  fees  of  the  students,  the  government  contrib- 
uting only  about  $500  a  month,  with  an  occasional 
$2,000  as  a  special  appropriation  for  extra  improve- 
ments. 

The  cost  of  matriculation  per  student  is  $15  per 
year,  the  fee  for  examination  is  $12.50  a  year,  while 
the  degrees  for  bachelor  and  doctor  cost  $50  and  $80 
respectively.     To  the  average  Peruvian  student,  who 


374      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

is  proverbially  poor,  these  sums  represent  an  expen- 
sive education. 

The  teachers  in  the  university  are  paid  $50.00  a 
month,  but  this  does  not  represent  their  entire  income, 
as  the  majority  of  the  professors  are  either  lawyers 
or  doctors  who  carry  on  individual  practice  outside  of 
school  hours.  They  devote  on  the  average  only  six 
hours  a  week  to  teaching  students.  In  the  University 
of  Cuzco  we  found  upon  the  faculty  ten  lawyers,  two 
physicians,  and  four  professors  who  devoted  their  en- 
tire time  to  teaching.  As  a  consequence  of  the  lack  of 
devoting  their  entire  time  to  teaching  as  a  specialty, 
the  devotion  and  punctuality  of  the  professors  to  their 
academic  tasks  leave  much  to  be  desired,  and  there 
have  been  frequent  complaints  by  the  students  of  the 
need  of  attention  to  their  duties  on  the  part  of  the 
faculty. 

In  1 9 10  there  occurred  a  serious  strike  of  the  stu- 
dents of  Cuzco  which  resulted  in  closing  the  university 
for  nearly  a  year.  The  rector  showed  me  holes  in 
the  walls  of  the  faculty  room  which  were  the  result  of 
a  small  riot  on  the  part  of  the  students,  who  appeared 
in  force  with  pistols  while  the  faculty  was  in  session, 
firing  not  only  blank  cartridges  but  literally  "shooting 
up"  the  hall  where  the  teachers  were  having  a  confer- 
ence. As  an  additional  sign  of  their  impatience  at  the 
way  the  faculty  was  conducting  the  institution,  the  stu- 
dents placed  a  large  can  in  the  middle  of  the  floor  of 
the  faculty  room  marked  in  large  letters  "dynamite." 
A  long  fuse  was  attached  to  the  can  which  was  lighted 
as  the  students  departed.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the 
faculty  also  departed  with  more  haste  than  dignity, 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL         375 

and  for  fear  of  further  outbreak  by  the  students  an 
order  was  given  to  close  the  university,  and  from  the 
seventh  of  May,  1909,  to  March,  19 10,  the  University 
of  Cuzco  presented  locked  doors. 

The  building  and  customs  of  this  ancient  institution 
are  far  more  indicative  of  a  mediaeval  university  than 
any  place  of  learning  one  would  visit  in  many  a  day. 
There  is  almost  an  utter  absence  of  comfort,  no  heat- 
ing arrangements  whatever,  although  the  university  is 
situated  12,500  feet  above  sea  level,  and  the  tempera- 
ture in  the  rooms  at  the  time  of  our  visit  was  never 
above  55 °  or  6o°.  The  rooms  are  high,  dismal 
and  cheerless,  and  the  pictures  upon  the  walls  remind 
one  of  old  thirteenth  century  days.  There  is  a  museum 
connected  with  the  institution  filled  with  some  remains 
of  the  old  Inca  civilisation,  and  the  gloomy,  ill-kept 
surroundings  add  to  the  deadness  of  the  place.  The 
library  of  3,000  volumes  is  composed  chiefly  of  books 
in  Spanish  and  there  is  a  decided  lack  of  up-to-date  liter- 
ature. One  of  the  teachers  pointed  out  the  sociological 
department,  with  the  somewhat  doubtful  complimen- 
tary descriptive  comment, 

"This  department  is  considered  better  even  than  the 
one  at  Lima,  but  at  Lima  this  department  amounts  to 
practically  nothing." 

The  whole  place  is  filled  with  cheerlessness  and  gives 
the  impression  of  the  saddest  scenes  of  "delightful 
studies"  we  have  ever  visited. 

A  mitigating  value  of  the  institution  is  suggested  to 
the  visitor,  who  is  told  that  according  to  a  well  authen- 
ticated old  Jesuit  manuscript,  there  is  buried  somewhere 
beneath  the  floors  of  this   ancient  building  treasure 


376      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

amounting  to  $11,000,000.  Yet  there  seems  to  be 
no  particular  interest  or  desire  on  the  part  of  the  stu- 
dents or  faculty  to  discover  this  treasure  which  would 
be  the  means  of  converting  their  institution  into  a 
Peruvian  Harvard  as  far  as  a  rich  endowment  is  con- 
cerned. I  asked  why  efforts  had  not  been  put  forth 
to  discover  this  treasure.  It  was  answered  that  such 
efforts  would  at  once  cause  a  disturbance  that  would 
close  again  the  university.  It  was  another  indication 
of  the  fact  that  while  the  Peruvian  will  tell  you  that 
he  is  eager  for  the  introduction  of  modern  improve- 
ments and  to  come  into  touch  with  the  life  of  the  20th 
century,  he  is  nevertheless  possessed  with  a  kind  of 
passive  incompetence  and  conservatism.  He  does  not 
seem  to  possess  initiative  himself,  and  his  traditions 
have  led  him  to  place  barriers  almost  unsurmountable 
in  the  way  of  any  one  else  who  would  be  progressive. 
A  further  indication  of  the  medievalism  regnant 
here  is  the  degree  day.  It  was  my  privilege  to  be 
present  during  a  part  of  the  examination  of  one  of  the 
Cuzco  students  for  his  doctor's  degree.  This  exami- 
nation lasted  two  days,  and  it  impressed  me  as  being 
a  most  thorough  affair.  The  student  occupied  a  high 
pulpit  seat  at  the  side  of  the  faculty  room,  while  on 
either  side  of  the  chamber  were  rows  of  professors, 
the  rector  and  his  associate  sitting  at  the  head  of  the 
room.  The  remainder  of  the  examination  hall  was 
filled  with  students  and  with  any  members  of  the  public 
who  desired  to  attend.  When  the  long  oral  examina- 
tion was  over  and  the  student  had  read  his  thesis,  time 
was  given  for  the  objectors  to  ply  him  with  questions. 
At  the  end  of  this  exercise  the  degree  was  conferred, 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL         377 

and  the  friends  of  the  student  who  had  been  waiting 
outside  came  forward  carrying  wreaths  of  flowers 
with  which  they  bedecked  the  young  doctor,  a  band 
began  to  play  and  start  the  procession  through  the 
streets,  and  in  the  wake  of  the  band  marched  the  stu- 
dent and  his  friends,  members  of  his  family  and  ad- 
mirers, while  young  girls  threw  rose  leaves  along  the 
way  of '  this  triumphant  apostle  of  Cuzco  learning. 
The  end  of  this  exercise,  which  represented  a  period 
of  seven  years'  study  in  the  university  on  the  part  of 
the  student,  was  celebrated  by  a  feast,  given  at  the 
young  doctor's  home.  After  this  formal  and  interest- 
ing occurrence,  the  young  man  was  ready  to  open  his 
office  as  a  lawyer  and  perhaps  to  have  a  part  among 
the  faculty  as  teacher,  or  if  he  was  a  young  man  of 
means  and  found  it  unnecessary  to  work,  he  was  con- 
sidered henceforth  as  occupying  a  dignified  gentleman's 
position  in  the  town  with  the  possibility  of  holding  some 
official  position. 

One  looks  in  vain  in  this  university  for  marks  of 
modernity  seen  in  the  student  life  of  the  universities  of 
the  United  States  or  Europe.  When  I  asked  about 
athletics  I  was  shown  a  paved  tennis  court  in  one  of 
the  patios  of  the  university  where  it  is  said  some  of  the 
students  and  the  teachers  play  tennis  at  times.  During 
our  stay,  however,  we  failed  to  see  any  indication  of 
the  use  of  this  court.  There  seems  to  be  no  student 
organisation  and  few  if  any  games,  like  football,  base- 
ball or  cricket,  which  give  colour  and  youthful  enthusi- 
asm to  the  university  in  the  north. 

Here,  as  in  many  of  the  schools  of  Peru,  there  would 
seem  to  be  a  decided  need  of  a  fresh  point  of  view  con- 


378      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

cerning  modern  ways  and  methods  of  education,  as 
practised  in  Europe  and  in  North  America.  To  be 
sure,  some  students  have  been  sent  from  this  section 
for  study  in  the  United  States.  According  to  the  testi- 
mony of  the  most  alert  teachers  here,  too  many  of  these 
students  have  found  their  way  to  smaller  Catholic  in- 
stitutions in  the  "States,"  where  the  viewpoint  has  been 
similar  to  that  of  their  early  training  in  their  own 
country,  and  where  little  indication  of  the  advance  and 
progressive  learning  of  the  large  universities  has 
reached  them.  They  return,  as  I  am  told,  quite  as 
bigoted  and  intolerant  as  they  were  before  they  went 
regarding  up-to-date  methods  of  life  and  study  in  the 
universities. 

The  great  need  is  to  get  these  students  in  their  for- 
eign study  into  touch  with  our  larger  and  more  liberal- 
minded  universities  where  they  will  learn  some  of  the 
things  which  are  most  needed  in  Peru  to-day.  Among 
those  influences  which  the  university  student  of  Peru 
needs  especially  to-day  is  a  sense  of  the  true  dignity  of 
labour. 

Another  value  which  the  Peruvian  student  needs  and 
would  naturally  receive  from  a  foreign  university,  in 
addition  to  his  broadened  point  of  view  of  study,  would 
be  the  practice  of  out-of-door  sports  and  the  develop- 
ment consequent  upon  the  exercises  of  student  organi- 
sation and  student  government,  in  both  of  which 
functions  the  student  of  Peru  at  present  is  deficient. 
There  is  also  a  great  need  for  well  trained  students  in 
practical  and  technical  institutions,  in  a  country  so  rich 
in  agricultural  and  mineral  resources.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  find  any  advanced  work  being 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL         379 

done  in  this  part  of  Peru  by  native  Peruvians.  All 
the  mines  and  large  farms  which  show  any  indication 
of  modern  efficiency  and  activity  are  in  the  hands  of 
foreigners. 

I  can  think  of  nothing  which  would  seem  to  be  of 
more  importance  at  present  in  this  region  of  the  old 
Inca  civilisation  than  the  establishment  by  the  Peruvian 
government,  in  connection  with  such  a  university  as 
Cuzco,  of  a  flourishing  agricultural  department  with 
a  big  experimental  farm  in  connection  therewith. 
Here  experts  from  other  countries  could  be  secured  to 
develop  scientific  Peruvian  farmers  from  the  ranks  of 
the  best  families.  The  work  upon  these  farms  could 
be  accomplished  by  the  Indians  who  live  upon  these 
vast  estates,  numbering  frequently  thousands  of  acres, 
but  which  are  now  cultivated  in  the  most  primitive 
fashion  and  only  wait  for  modern  machinery  and  scien- 
tific enterprise  to  yield  at  least  one  hundred  times  the 
product  now  being  realised  from  them.  A  big  mining 
school  or  a  work  shop  similar  to  the  famous  Boulac 
shops  of  Cairo,  where  the  young  Egyptians  are  learning 
by  means  of  "the  hammer  and  the  hand,"  would  fairly 
revolutionise  conditions  in  these  isolated  regions  which 
at  present  are  less  advanced  than  when  the  ancient 
Incas  and  their  predecessors  lived  among  these  his- 
toric mountains.  Unless  some  such  advance  can  be 
brought  about  up  here  on  the  tablelands  of  the  Sierras, 
we  can  see  no  great  promise  of  a  new  Peru. 

The  educational  system  of  Chile  dates  practically 
from  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The  colonial 
period  gave  to  Chile  only  a  few  schools  of  elementary 
grade  which  were  carried  on  largely  for  the  wealthy 


380     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

families,  while  convent  schools  gave  instruction  of  the 
various  religious  orders  in  Latin,  philosophy  and  the- 
ology. Students  who  wished  to  proceed  further  to- 
ward a  literary  or  scientific  degree  in  a  university  were 
obliged  to  go  to  the  University  of  San  Marcos  at  Lima. 
In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  however,  a 
university  was  founded  at  Santiago  and  dedicated  to 
San  Felipe  in  honour  of  King  George  V.  The  Jesuits 
were  expelled  in  1767,  and  the  colonial  government 
gave  somewhat  more  careful  attention  to  the  founda- 
tion of  public  instruction,  and  certain  primary  schools 
were  founded  in  Santiago.  The  revolutionary  move- 
ment of  1 8 10  was  led  by  men  who  aspired  to  a  com- 
plete system  of  education  on  European  lines  and  in 
1 8 12  the  first  newspaper  was  established  and  Chilean 
schools  were  founded  for  women  as  well  as  for  men. 
It  was  not,  however,  until  the  adoption  of  the  Consti- 
tution in  1833  that  the  present  system  of  education  on 
a  large  scale  and  according  to  scientific  principles  came 
into  being.  It  was  then  that  scholars  from  various 
countries  of  Europe  were  invited  to  assist  the  govern- 
ment, and  famous  scholars  came  to  Chile  and  wrought 
a  work  of  transformation  and  progress. 

It  was  in  1829  that  the  first  Spanish-American 
man  of  letters,  Andres  Bello,  a  Venezuelan  born  in 
Caracas,  who  had  studied  in  England,  was  called  to 
Santiago  to  give  his  services  to  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  country.  One  of  the  results  was  that  in 
1839  tne  °ld  University  of  San  Felipe  with  its  monastic 
system  of  education  was  abolished  by  formal  decree, 
and  Andres  Bello  was  made  the  first  rector  of  the  new 
University  of  Chile.     New  buildings  were  erected  and 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL         381 

a  new  era  of  independence  of  thought  and  learning  for 
Chile  was  born.  This  new  university  was  formally- 
organised  in  Santiago  in  1842,  and  in  1879  lts  statutes 
were  amended  in  the  form  in  which  they  exist  to-day. 

To-day  one  finds  here  at  the  Chilean  university  eight 
faculties — law,  political  science,  engineering,  pedagogy, 
medicine,  pharmacy,  dentistry  and  architecture,  includ- 
ing altogether  approximately  fifteen  hundred  students. 

The  law  school  is  by  far  the  largest  in  the  university, 
comprising  480  students  with  45  professors  and  in- 
structors, and  extending  over  a  course  of  five  years. 
As  in  other  South  American  states  this  course  includes 
the  liberal  arts  course  as  well  as  the  preparation  for 
the  study  of  law,  and  fifty  per  cent  of  the  graduates  do 
not  become  lawyers,  but  devote  themselves  to  teaching, 
journalism,  public  administration  and  politics.  Many 
of  the  instructors  and  professors  are  foreigners,  and 
a  large  number  have  taken  post  graduate  study  in  for- 
eign countries. 

The  first  primary  school  was  opened  in  Santiago  in 
1 8 13  and  at  present  there  are  more  than  twenty-five 
hundred  such  schools  in  Chile  attended  by  at  least 
220,000  children,  in  buildings  of  which  385  are  owned 
by  the  government,  1839  heing  rented,  and  281  pro- 
vided by  the  patrons  of  the  schools. 

Children  may  enter  the  primary  schools  at  the  age 
of  five  years,  and  many  pass  to  the  high  schools  after 
reaching  the  age  of  ten,  which  is  the  minimum  age  at 
which  any  one  may  enter.  The  system  is  compulsory, 
although  it  is  difficult  here,  as  in  Peru,  to  maintain 
strict  compulsory  attendance  in  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try districts. 


382      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

There  are  sixteen  training  colleges  or  normal  schools 
all  of  which  have  been  founded  and  are  administered 
by  the  state.  Six  of  these  colleges  are  for  men  and 
ten  for  women.  The  course  of  instruction  lasts  five 
years  and  the  state  provides  training,  board,  lodg- 
ing and  text  books  free  of  charge.  The  teachers  in 
return  for  these  advantages  are  required  to  remain  in 
the  service  of  the  state  for  at  least  a  minimum  period 
of  seven  years.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  French 
has  been  replaced  by  English  as  a  subject  of  instruc- 
tion in  most  of  the  women's  training  colleges,  a  further 
indication  of  the  sympathy  which  one  finds  throughout 
Chile  for  English  instruction.  The  effect  of  this  is 
seen  in  all  departments  of  life,  especially  in  the  great 
cities,  where  the  majority  of  the  leading  men  and 
women  can  speak  at  least  a  little  English. 

Secondary  education  has  advanced  rapidly  in  the 
last  twenty  years  and  the  liceos  now  number  forty  for 
boys  and  thirty-eight  for  girls,  giving  education  to 
13,172  boys  and  7,266  girls. 

The  secondary  schools  for  boys  are  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  University  of  Santiago,  while  the  schools 
for  girls  are  administered  directly  by  the  state.  The 
visitor  notices  that  considerable  attention  is  given  to 
civic  education  and  also  that  seven  Englishmen  figure 
among  the  teachers  who  are  in  charge  of  the  boys' 
liceos  and  nineteen  English  women  are  teachers  in  the 
girls'  preparatory  schools. 

The  majority  of  the  non-Chilean  teachers  seemed  to 
be  of  Teuton  nationality. 

The  attention  given  to  the  training  of  teachers  is 
also  seen  in  the  secondary  institutions  in  the  training 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL  383 

college,  El  Instituto  Pedagogico,  where  a  four  years' 
course  of  instruction  is  given.  This  is  the  only  state 
school  in  which  Latin  is  taught.  This  school  was 
founded  in  1890,  and  both  men  and  women  are  ad- 
mitted, the  women  outnumbering  the  men  in  the  pro- 
portion of  three  to  one.  This  is  due  largely  to  the 
poor  pay  which  is  given  to  teachers,  which  has  driven 
men  into  other  professions  as  well  as  to  the  fact  that 
in  Chile  it  has  not  been  traditionally  the  custom  for 
women  to  enter  the  wage-earning  field. 

Co-education  is  not  permitted  in  the  public  schools 
beyond  the  second  grade,  but  in  the  higher  colleges  of 
education  it  is  gradually  becoming  common. 

There  is  a  manual  training  school  in  Santiago  which 
should  be  duplicated  in  other  parts  of  Chile,  the  mod- 
els of  education  being  taken  largely  from  Swedish 
patterns. 

Although  an  agricultural  school  has  existed  in  San- 
tiago since  1866,  it  was  not  until  1885  that  European 
professors  were  engaged  for  schools  of  this  character 
in  five  of  the  other  Chilean  cities.  European  influence 
is  seen  in  these  technical  schools,  for  it  is  to  Europe 
that  students  have  been  sent  very  largely  for  instruc- 
tion. 

In  a  country  of  great  agricultural  possibilities  like 
Chile,  the  Talco  agricultural  school  especially  furnishes 
a  type  of  great  practical  example,  not  only  for  Chile 
but  for  every  South  American  republic.  This  institu- 
tion aims  to  train  practical  specialists,  stock  raisers, 
butter  and  cheese-makers,  silk-culturists,  wine-growers, 
bee-farmers,  and  horticulturists,  and  the  buildings  and 
appliances  are  all  arranged  to  take  these  subjects  out 


384      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  theory  into  practice.  The  introduction  of  the  Dutch 
breed  of  cattle  raising  and  dairy  farming  is  notable, 
while  one  is  impressed  with  the  number  of  text-books 
and  pamphlets  published  by  the  professors  of  these 
institutions. 

There  are  schools  for  mining  in  three  cities,  and  in 
Santiago  the  school  is  more  properly  a  technical  col- 
lege, attended  by  young  mechanics  who  are  lodged  and 
boarded  by  the  state  for  two  years.  In  some  of  these 
schools  the  students  work  in  the  neighbouring  mines 
under  the  direction  of  the  superintendent  and  in  line 
with  the  ordinary  mining  regime. 

There  are  several  good  industrial  training  schools 
for  men  and  a  school  of  arts  and  crafts,  with  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  pupils,  and  an  installation  of  machinery 
valued  at  $280,000.  This  latter  school  is  being  of 
great  help  to  the  country  in  developing  capable  and 
educated  heads  of  workshops  and  men  versed  in  the 
mechanical  arts  and  electricity. 

There  are  also  in  various  parts  of  the  country  twenty- 
nine  technical  colleges  for  women,  where  girls  are 
trained  for  commercial  positions  and  in  various  arts 
like  glove-making,  basket-weaving,  cookery,  dress- 
making, carving,  clock-repairing,  sewing,  embroidery 
and  artificial  flower  making.  These  schools  are  espe- 
cially intended  for  fitting  students  for  instruction  in  the 
ordinary  schools,  and  classes  of  theory  and  education 
are  added. 

Add  to  these  technical  institutions  a  series  of  schools 
and  societies  along  scientific,  literary  and  educational 
lines  in  astronomy,  meteorology,  botany,  and  the  vari- 
ous museums  of  natural  science  and  industrial  libraries 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL  585 

and  institutes,  and  one  is  inclined  to  give  just  praise 
to  the  Chileans  for  the  time  and  attention  afforded  to  a 
symmetrical  system  of  educational  training.  It  is  no 
more  than  fair  to  say  that  the  foreigners,  especially  the 
Germans  and  the  English,  have  been  of  invaluable  as- 
sistance in  the  establishment  and  the  development  of 
these  various  branches  of  learning  of  which  Chile  is 
naturally  proud,  and  which  are  giving  to  this  vigorous 
and  progressive  country  an  intelligent  stability. 

The  term  student  life  connotes  something  quite  dif- 
ferent in  the  Argentine  republic  than  we  in  the  United 
States  are  accustomed  to  associate  with  that  phrase. 
The  students  of  Argentina,  although  they  are  the  re- 
cipients of  exceptional  advantages  of  free  education, 
twenty-five  million  dollars  being  set  aside  in  the  gov- 
ernment budget  for  education  in  a  recent  year,  lack 
many  of  the  privileges  which  the  American  students 
would  be  loath  to  forego. 

The  university  student,  for  example,  has  little  of 
that  experience  known  as  corporate  college  life  in  the 
United  States.  Intercollegiate  athletic  sports,  stu- 
dent-initiated societies  and  "college  spirit"  are  scarcely 
known  among  Argentine  collegiates. 

The  absence  of  the  dormitory  in  connection  with  stu- 
dent life  in  the  higher  grades  has  been  doubtless  a 
factor  in  reducing  to  a  minimum  the  associated  life 
and  spirit  of  student  existence  as  these  receive  expres- 
sion in  the  universities  and  colleges  of  the  United 
States.  In  the  city  of  Buenos  Aires  (where  students 
come  from  throughout  the  country,  as  do  all  other 
kinds  of  inhabitants,  as  to  a  magnetic  pole  of  interest) 
the  youth  are  scattered  in  boarding  houses  throughout 


386      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  wide  expanse  of  the  Capital,  and  are  almost  as  ig- 
norant of  one  another's  lives  and  conditions  as  is  the 
case  in  our  graduate  schools  in  a  big  American  city. 
In  certain  instances,  indeed,  one  comes  upon  students 
living  together  in  conditions  resembling  the  Latin 
Quarter  in  Paris.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  these  social 
groups  do  not  make  especially  for  the  best  moral  con- 
ditions. Dr.  Alberto  Nin  Frias,  a  careful  student  of 
life  in  the  university  of  Argentina,  remarked: 

"The  inner  life  of  the  student  shows  lack  of  social 
purpose,  lawlessness,  and  the  spirit  of  each  for  him- 
self." 

The  arrangement  of  the  studies,  in  the  courses  of 
higher  education  especially,  are  such  as  to  increase  the 
likelihood  of  idleness  on  the  part  of  the  student  during 
the  term  period,  for  one  finds  that  much  of  the  work 
of  these  students  is  crowded  into  a  few  days  previous 
to  the  examination  period. 

The  teachers  of  Argentine  students,  as  is  the  case  in 
many  another  South  American  republic,  are  too  fre- 
quently professional  men  who  devote  only  a  few  hours 
a  week  to  their  academic  work  and  have  little  or  no 
knowledge  of  the  students  personally.  The  idea  of 
friendship  between  the  student  and  the  professor  seems 
to  be  quite  foreign  to  the  experience  of  Argentine 
student  youth. 

In  a  visit  to  one  of  the  university  professors,  who 
is  perhaps  as  well  known  as  any  of  the  educators  of 
the  country,  being  the  editor  of  a  philosophical  review 
and  an  author  of  note,  I  found  him,  not  at  the  univer- 
sity, but  at  his  home,  keeping  his  medical  office  hours 
and  catering  to  a  large  constituency  of  people  who  de- 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL         387 

pended  upon  him  as  a  private  physician.  It  is  amazing 
how  this  man  finds  any  time  whatever  to  give  to  uni- 
versity teaching. 

The  association  of  education  with  politics,  the  pro- 
fessors being  appointed  by  the  government,  keeps 
education  in  general  completely  under  state  control. 
Such  conditions  not  only  tend  to  give  the  supervision 
of  educational  matters  into  the  hands  of  men  who  are 
poorly  equipped  by  training  or  experience  to  handle 
such  subjects,  but,  what  is  worse,  it  degrades  educa- 
tional leadership  at  times  by  placing  it  in  charge  of 
politicians  who  are  not  the  highest  exponents,  either 
of  citizenship  or  of  public  morals. 

Student  life,  as  life,  lacks  in  Argentina  unifying  in- 
terests. There  is  no  particular  or  close  sympathetic 
ties  with  the  university  or  between  the  students.  One 
finds  occasional  outbursts  of  patriotic  feeling,  but  the 
ideas  of  social  organisation  or  self-government,  known 
to  the  American  or  English  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing, are  seldom  found,  and  the  need  of  corporate  stu- 
dent expression  is  evident  and  felt  by  many  of  the  most 
intelligent  professors  and  students. 

The  students  of  Argentina  mingle  continuously  in 
politics  and  are  considered  by  the  masses  as  in  a  sense 
the  guardians  of  the  nation's  honour.  These  youth  are 
usually  found  in  the  leadership  in  riots,  revolutions  and 
civil  wars.  Until  recently  law  was  the  popular  study 
for  university  students,  and  this  was  an  open  sesame 
for  government  positions  which  hold  out  rich  entice- 
ments to  so  many  inhabitants  of  this  republic.  At 
present  medicine  seems  to  take  the  lead.  The  writer 
visited  the  finely  equipped  medical  building  in  Buenos 


388      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Aires  where  3000  students  in  the  three  departments  of 
medicine,  pharmacy  and  dentistry  were  pursuing  their 
studies.  The  building  was  immense  and  ornate  like 
other  public  buildings  of  the  city;  there  was  a  library 
de  luxe  of  50,000  volumes,  a  museum  containing  all 
kinds  of  Argentine  products  and  the  latest  appliances 
and  equipment  for  scientific  work.  One  finds  here,  as 
in  the  other  professional  schools  of  Argentina,  a  bright, 
active  and  intelligent  set  of  youths.  Many  of  them 
are  deeply  influenced  by  the  radical  type  of  French 
rationalism  and  there  is  hardly  a  more  irreligious  at- 
mosphere conceivable  among  students  than  that  which 
one  finds  among  the  university  youth  of  this  republic. 
In  some  cases  one  finds  much  industry  and  real  students 
who  are  lovers  of  knowledge  for  itself.  In  such  in- 
stances the  student  usually  has  gained  considerable 
erudition  and  a  type  of  ability  which  would  be  called 
encyclopaedic  learning.  French  models  have  been  fol- 
lowed in  academic  studies  while  considerable  German 
influence  is  found  in  the  professional  schools. 

The  Argentine  student  quite  often  has  a  broader 
cosmopolitan  knowledge  than  is  possessed  by  students 
of  the  United  States.  He  has  a  facility  for  acquiring 
French,  German  and  other  European  languages,  and 
he  is  kept  in  touch  daily  through  the  Argentine  news- 
papers with  a  wider  sweep  of  world  affairs  than  is 
usually  supplied  by  the  press  of  the  United  States.  In 
temperament  he  is  argumentative  and  has  great  facil- 
ity in  expression.  This  student,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
inferior  in  social  and  civic  service,  personal  initiative, 
and  the  spirit  of  self-restraint. 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL  389 

In  the  words  of  one  of  these  students  of  whom  I 
asked  concerning  the  kind  of  life  he  liked  best: 

"We  want  the  life  that  is  short  but  good,  and  I 
suppose  that  many  of  our  ideals  are  influenced  by  the 
French  philosophy  in  this  regard." 

One  will  be  told  that  the  best  class  of  young  men  in 
South  America  are  to  be  found  among  the  students, 
that  they  are  the  hope  of  the  country.  Considerable 
concern  is  being  felt,  therefore,  concerning  student 
character-building,  considered  justly  to  be  fundamental 
to  a  nation's  progress.  The  church  has  slight  hold 
upon  these  men,  and  religion  of  any  kind  seems  to  be 
at  present  conspicuous  by  its  absence.  The  professors 
openly  teach  agnosticism,  and  some  of  them  will  tell 
you  that  it  is  their  professed  purpose  to  do  all  in  their 
power  to  rid  their  country  of  religion  which  they  con- 
sider has  been  in  the  past  a  handicap  fostering  igno- 
rance, superstition  and  forming  an  enemy  to  independ- 
ent thinking.  Apart  from  the  fashion  of  observing 
religious  exercises  on  the  part  of  many  of  the  older 
families,  the  Catholic  church  seems  to  have  lost  its 
grip  upon  the  thoughtful  and  intelligent  classes  of 
Argentina. 

There  are  a  few  missionary  schools  which  are  well 
conducted,  but  the  difficulty  of  reaching  children  for 
purely  religious  propaganda  is  very  great.  The  pres- 
ent-day material  influence  which  has  swept  quite  com- 
pletely through  this  republic  is  seen  in  its  power  upon 
student  ideals  as  in  all  other  departments  of  the  life  of 
the  country.  Argentina  seems  to  have  found  its  body, 
but  not  yet  to  have  discovered  its  soul. 

As  far  as  modern  education  goes,  Argentina  will 


390      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

compare  favourably  in  its  methods  and  in  the  types  of 
instruction  with  many  another  advanced  country.  In 
the  city  of  Buenos  Aires  there  are  six  excellent  secon- 
dary colleges,  as  they  are  called,  and  one  or  more  of 
these  institutions  in  each  province.  The  Ministry  of 
Public  Instruction  has  established  libraries  in  connec- 
tion with  these  schools,  which  are  open  to  the  public. 
The  secondary  stage  of  instruction  begins  when  the 
student  is  twelve  or  fourteen  years  of  age  and  con- 
tinues for  five  years.  At  the  end  of  this  time  the 
student  is  ready  for  the  superior  instruction  afforded  in 
the  faculties  in  the  five  universities  of  the  republic, 
of  which  Cordoba  is  the  most  ancient  seat  of  learning, 
and  the  University  of  Buenos  Aires  the  largest.  The 
Universities  of  Santa  Fe  and  Tucuman  are  both  of  them 
worthy  of  the  country,  and  contain  faculties  for  phi- 
losophy and  letters,  engineering,  law,  medicine  and  the 
sciences.  The  university  course  lasts  for  six  years, 
with  the  exception  of  the  medical  course,  which  is  for 
seven  years. 

Despite  what  may  be  said  concerning  the  generosity 
of  the  government  along  educational  lines,  the  amount 
which  the  students  are  required  to  pay  for  their  degrees 
seems  excessive,  this  amount  being  several  times  greater 
than  is  required  in  the  universities  of  the  United  States ; 
this  is  a  real  barrier  to  the  ambition  of  the  poor  stu- 
dent. 

The  training  of  teachers  is  receiving  considerable 
attention  in  Argentina,  there  being  seventeen  normal 
schools  for  women  and  five  for  men,  one  of  these  be- 
ing of  a  very  high  grade  and  situated  in  Buenos  Aires ; 
there  are  also  twelve  mixed  schools  of  this  type. 


SOUTH  AMERICANS  AT  SCHOOL  391 

Primary  instruction  is  compulsory  for  all  children 
from  six  to  fourteen  years,  of  whatever  nationality. 
Many  private  institutions  exist  in  addition  to  the  pub- 
lic schools,  and  they  are  under  the  inspection  of  the 
National  Educational  Board.  All  instruction  in  the 
public  schools  is  free,  and  provinces  which  lack  funds 
to  meet  the  expenses  of  primary  instruction  are  aided 
by  grants  from  the  national  government  for  this  pur- 
pose. 

The  government  also  maintains  many  special  schools 
which  are  excellently  equipped,  especially  those  for 
economic,  industrial,  technical  and  agricultural  work. 
The  writer  visited  the  Escula  Superior  de  Commercio, 
which  is  housed  in  the  same  building  with  the  large 
economic  school,  both  of  which  are  sections  of  the 
national  University  of  Buenos  Aires.  In  the  eco- 
nomic section  there  were  between  three  or  four  hun- 
dred students  preparing  especially  for  consular  offices 
and  to  become  teachers.  The  Commercial  School  con- 
tained for  the  most  part  prospective  accountants.  It 
was  somewhat  unusual  to  find  the  college  lectures  held 
from  six  to  seven  in  the  evening.  These  institutions 
are  also  open  for  night  schools. 

The  visitor  from  the  United  States  is  assured  re- 
peatedly by  the  Argentines  that  they  believe  one  of 
the  best  means  of  producing  a  real  and  abiding  Pan- 
Americanism  resides  in  the  sending  of  students  from 
Argentina  to  study  in  American  universities,  and  in  turn 
receiving  teachers  and  students  in  the  Argentine  insti- 
tutions who  will  remain  long  enough  to  secure  the  point 
of  view  and  the  spirit  of  the  country.  There  are  at 
present  between  thirty  and  forty  Argentine  students 


392      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

studying  in  American  universities.  When  one  meets 
one  of  these  returned  students,  one  notices  immediately 
the  broader  outlook  upon  North  and  South  American 
relationships.  There  is  much  that  students  from  both 
of  these  republics  can  learn  from  each  other,  and  it 
is  to  be  hoped  that  some  co-operative  arrangement  may 
be  made  to  bring  together  in  larger  and  ever  increasing 
numbers  graduate  students  from  these  two  countries. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  AMERICAN  CONSUL  AND  HIS  WORK 

AMONG  the  men  who  are  serving  the  United 
States  in  foreign  lands  there  are  few  who  have 
the  opportunity  of  wielding  greater  power  or  influence 
on  behalf  of  their  country  than  the  consular  represen- 
tatives. It  has  been  my  privilege  to  know  many  of 
these  men  in  different  countries,  and  on  the  whole  I 
have  come  to  respect  them  highly,  both  for  their  ideals 
and  the  manner  in  which  they  are  striving  to  attain 
them,  frequently  under  arduous  and  difficult  circum- 
stances. 

There  are  few  officials  of  the  United  States  whose 
complicated  work  is  less  accurately  known  by  the  rank 
and  file  of  citizens,  and  even  by  world  travellers,  than 
these  men  who,  while  exiles  from  their  native  land, 
are  supposed  to  know  more  about  that  land  than  the 
people  at  home,  in  order  that  they  may  translate  the 
spirit  and  the  work  of  their  country  into  terms  intel- 
ligible to  the  foreign  nations  in  which  they  serve. 
That  our  consular  service  has  been  sadly  handicapped 
at  times  by  politicians  ignorant  of  conditions  outside  of 
the  United  States,  cannot  be  denied.  That  here  and 
there  there  have  been  unwise  appointments  and  poor 
Consuls  also  cannot  be  denied.     If,  however,  our  peo- 

393 


394      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

pie  and  our  politicians  would  take  the  time  and  effort 
to  study  both  the  object  and  the  activities  of  these  im- 
portant representatives  from  whom  foreigners,  espe- 
cially in  matters  of  trade,  learn  the  characteristics  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  way  of  doing  business  in  this 
republic,  the  natural  trade  expansion  of  America  would 
be  facilitated,  and  the  work  of  the  American  Consuls 
would  be  made  easier  than  it  is  to-day. 

Increased  appreciation  and  less  ignorant  criticism  of 
these  government  officers  would  undoubtedly  help  the 
service.  But  appreciation  is  born  of  knowledge,  and 
the  average  person  seems  to  have  little  definite  con- 
ception of  the  consular  work. 

Suppose,  for  example,  the  Americans  travelling 
abroad  who  received  favours  from  these  officers  upon 
whom  they  are  often  largely  dependent  for  information 
and  guidance  as  well  as  for  protection,  should  form 
the  habit  of  writing  to  the  State  Department  as  well  as 
to  the  Consul  himself,  speaking  of  their  appreciation  of 
many  kindnesses  proffered;  suppose  that  every  Ameri- 
can business  man  doing  business  abroad  should  take 
the  position  of  a  certain  prominent  man  of  affairs  in  a 
South  American  city  who  stated  that  he  considered  it 
both  undignified  and  disloyal  to  his  country  to  criticise 
harshly  the  representative  whom  his  nation  had  seen 
fit  to  place  in  a  foreign  nation — would  not  such  a  course 
be  the  means  of  making  a  better  consular  service? 
We  have  heard  of  many  people  who  have  been  quite 
ready  to  send  in  complaints,  both  to  the  State  Depart- 
ment and  to  the  Consuls  themselves,  as  well  as  to 
air  their  supposed  grievances  concerning  our  service 
abroad.     Is  it  not  time  and  perhaps  a  peculiarly  strate- 


THE  AMERICAN  CONSUL  AND  HIS  WORK 

gic  time  just  now,  for  those  who  understand  something 
of  the  consular  difficulties  and  have  benefited  by  con- 
sular favours  to  make  themselves  heard? 

In  the  first  place  there  is  considerable  misunder- 
standing as  to  the  fundamental  object  with  which  our 
American  Consuls  are  sent  to  foreign  nations.  Some 
people  will  tell  you  that  they  are  there  to  serve  solely 
the  "American  Colony"  or  the  people  who  are  estab- 
lished in  business  and  trade  abroad;  that  it  is  their 
business  to  act  as  legal  advisers  for  these  American 
business  men  in  other  nations,  and  in  a  general  way  to 
take  their  part  against  the  legal  exactions  of  laws  and 
customs  in  the  country  where  they  serve. 

It  is  not  always  understood  that  such  is  not  the 
main  business  of  the  American  Consul,  but  that  he  is 
primarily  the  agent  of  his  government  to  the  people 
of  the  nation  to  which  he  is  sent.  He  is  to  foster  com- 
mercial and  trade  relations  between  Americans  at  home 
and  the  business  people  of  alien  countries,  and  when 
these  relations  have  resulted  in  a  settlement  of  Ameri- 
can business  in  these  countries,  much  of  this  responsi- 
bility to  these  particular  people,  at  least,  ceases.  In 
other  words,  the  American  Consul  is  not  primarily  a 
policeman  or  an  unpaid  legal  attache  to  any  business 
firm  acting  abroad.  The  service  which  he  renders 
repeatedly  to  such  firms  is  often  a  voluntary  and 
friendly  one,  rather  than  one  primarily  laid  down  in 
his  instructions. 

One  can  readily  realise  why  this  is  true,  when  the 
multifold  duties  of  the  Consul  to  the  various  govern- 
ment departments  at  home,  are  considered. 

There  is  first  of  all  the  Consul's  duty  to  the  State 


396      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Department  which  involves  numerous  and  frequent  re- 
ports. There  are  accounts  of  shipping  of  all  kinds  to 
be  kept,  port  statistics,  political  and  statistical  reports, 
registration  of  American  citizens,  and  passports  to  be 
vised.  There  is  the  Consul's  jurisdictional  work,  his 
work  of  settling  the  estates  of  persons  dying  abroad, 
together  with  his  peculiar  intercessory  offices  for  the 
American  colony  in  countries  where  there  are  capitu- 
lations, or  in  countries  where  there  are  extra-territorial 
rights. 

There  are  also  duties  which  the  Consul  must  perform 
for  the  Treasury  Department.  These  include  such 
services  as  transfers  of  all  United  States  bonds  abroad: 
the  income  tax  business;  demigraphic  statistics  to  secure 
and  send  every  week  to  the  Department;  and  bills  of 
health  for  ships. 

The  Department  of  Commerce  makes  large  demands 
upon  the  Consul.     This  Department  requires  him, 

i.  To  legalise  all  transfer  of  shipping. 

2.  To  survey  all  protested  cargo  and  protested  ship- 
ments of  merchandise  and  damaged  ships. 

3.  To  attend  to  the  discharge  and  enrolment  of 
every  American  seaman  in  his  port. 

4.  To  act  as  intermediary  between  ships'  captains 
and  port  authorities. 

5.  To  send  American  sailors  to  hospitals  when  it  is 
required,  and  also  to  see  to  their  burial  and  to  the 
settlement  of  their  estates. 

6.  To  write  regular  commercial  reports. 

7.  To  settle  all  disputes  between  masters  and  mar- 
iners. 


THE  AMERICAN  CONSUL  AND  HIS  WORK    397 

When  it  is  realised  that  much  of  the  excellent  service 
which  the  Department  of  Commerce  at  Washington  is 
rendering  at  present  to  the  country,  in  the  way  of  sta- 
tistical knowledge  and  reports  concerning  various 
branches  of  trade  with  foreign  nations,  depends  upon 
the  regular  reports  of  Consuls  concerning  these  mat- 
ters, a  new  and  vital  importance  attaches  to  the  service 
of  such  government  officers. 

The  Department  of  the  Navy,  also,  looks  to  the 
Consul  as  the  sole  representative  of  the  Bureau  of 
Hydrography  and  expects  him  to  watch  the  changes  of 
light  houses,  holding  him  responsible,  in  part  at  least, 
for  any  ships  which  are  wrecked  by  reason  of  changes 
in  lights  and  signals,  etc.  The  Navy  Department 
also  requires  him  to  receive  warships  entering  his 
port  with  the  proper  ceremony  [which  is  considerably 
complicated]  and  to  purchase  coal  and  water  for  such 
ships  when  required.  A  certain  Consul  of  our  ac- 
quaintance was  involved  recently  in  a  negotiation  in- 
volving $17,000  in  the  purchase  of  coal  for  a  warship 
entering  his  port. 

There  are  also  consular  reports  to  be  sent  to  the 
Department  of  Agriculture,  such  as  periodical  crop 
reports,  and  he  acts  as  agent  for  the  transmission  of 
grain  and  fruit  seeds. 

The  American  Consul  abroad  is  also  the  deputy 
officer  of  Customs  in  the  place  to  which  he  is  sent.  He 
must  legalise  the  invoice  at  the  point  of  origin  unless 
such  invoice  is  worth  less  than  $100.00.  He  must 
itemise  invoices  from  which  the  import  statistics  of 
the  United  States  are  made,  and  this  requires  that  he 


398      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

shall  know  the  wholesale  prices  and  hold  a  check  upon 
any  articles  that  are  undervalued. 

To  the  Post  Office  Department  this  officer  is  also 
related,  being  the  agent  of  the  dead  letter  office  of  the 
United  States,  returning  uncalled-for  letters  to  that 
Department,  and  also  reminding  Post  Offices  in  his 
territory  of  their  obligation  in  this  regard.  It  is  his 
duty  also  to  receive  mail  of  American  citizens  at  the 
consular  offices  and  see  to  its  forwarding.  I  have 
found  frequently  the  Consul  handling  mail  at  his  office 
for  several  hundred  persons. 

It  is  also  the  Consul's  work  to  assist  all  secret  service 
men  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  as  well  as  to  devote  his 
time  and  attention  to  travelling  officials  of  the  govern- 
ment who  may  be  passing  through  his  section. 

The  responsibilities  of  the  consular  officer  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States  consists  in  answering  every 
letter  received,  inscribing  them  in  a  book  together  with 
a  reply,  each  letter  being  numbered. 

He  represents  also  all  the  Courts  of  the  United 
States  for  the  Department  of  Justice  and  possesses 
notarial  responsibility  as  well  as  the  work  of  convey- 
ance and  is  a  Commissioner  of  Deeds.  He  must  ac- 
quaint himself  thoroughly  with  all  the  treaties  existing 
between  the  United  States  and  the  country  to  which 
he  is  sent  and  keep  himself  posted  concerning  every 
development  in  connection  with  the  multifold  duties 
enumerated  above.  In  a  word  the  consular  office  is 
a  clearing  house  for  the  branches  of  our  government 
at  home  and  public  business  abroad.  It  is  a  rallying 
point  for  Americans  doing  business  in  foreign  lands 


THE  AMERICAN  CONSUL  AND  HIS  WORK    399 

and  a  channel  through  which  international  trade  with 
these  lands  may  be  expedited. 

To  travellers  and  tourists,  moreover,  the  Consul  is 
an  indispensable  necessity  and  friend  in  need.  Every 
visiting  American,  tourist,  traveller,  official,  professor, 
investigator  or  adventurer,  feels  that  he  has  the  right 
(and  he  seldom  omits  using  it)  of  making  a  call  upon 
the  Consul.  At  times  he  only  wishes  to  drop  in  for 
a  "friendly  chat"  or  "pay  his  respects."  He  is  glad  to 
see  an  American  and  is  inclined  to  sit  and  gossip  about 
things  back  home,  not  realising  many  times  that  the 
busy  man  has  a  huge  pile  of  invoices  at  his  side  await- 
ing his  signature,  or  perhaps  must  sit  up  half  the 
night  to  write  a  report  that  must  catch  to-morrow's 
steamer. 

To  the  tourist  the  Consul  must  be  the  Liberal  Dis- 
penser of  Information.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  usual 
Consul  who  gets  along  in  the  service  is  encyclopaedic 
in  his  knowledge.  He  knows  that  he  will  be  required 
not  only  to  give  letters  of  introduction  to  travellers,  but 
also  to  inform  the  men  where  they  can  buy  the  best 
brand  of  cigars,  and  tell  the  ladies  what  there  is  to  see 
in  town  and  the  best  places  to  shop.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  subdued,  sad  look  upon  a  Consul's  face  in 
the  city  of  Cairo  as  he  stood  beside  me  and  watched 
the  arrival  at  the  Shepard's  hotel  of  three  hundred 
American  tourists  on  the  Steamship  Cleveland.  He 
exclaimed  resignedly  as  he  watched  their  approach, 
"I'll  have  them  all  this  afternoon!" 

It  must  also  be  noted  that  the  Consul,  who  chances 
to  be  located  in  a  place  where  there  is  no  Minister  or 
Ambassador,  owes  social  responsibilities  to  the  Ameri- 


400     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

can  colony  of  which  he  is  the  head,  and  must  attend 
lunches,  dinners  and  receptions,  as  well  as  personally 
give  such  entertainments.  He  is  also  in  such  places 
called  upon,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  Thanksgiving  Day, 
Washington's  Birthday,  and  on  other  national  patriotic 
occasions,  to  make  speeches  and  preside  at  the  func- 
tions. 

There  has  been  much  said  and  written  concerning  the 
salaries  of  our  consular  and  diplomatic  officers,  and 
the  handicap  under  which  they  serve  in  competing  with 
the  representatives  of  other  nations  in  the  matter  of 
dignity  in  living,  houses,  entertainment,  travelling  ex- 
penses, etc.  There  has  been  without  doubt  an  im- 
provement along  this  line  in  recent  years.  Yet  the 
traveller  is  frequently  surprised  and  chagrined  at  find- 
ing the  handicap  and  disadvantage  under  which  many 
of  our  consular  officers  work,  because  of  small  salaries, 
or  allowances  which  very  easily  are  expended  in  for- 
eign lands  in  their  necessary  task  of  ingratiating  them- 
selves through  the  medium  of  dinners  and  social 
favours  with  the  members  of  the  nation  whose  good 
will  they  must  necessarily  possess  if  they  succeed  in 
their  mission.  We  have  rarely  seen  a  consular  officer 
who  has  been  able  to  save  money.  If  he  loses  his 
appointment  through  changes  in  the  administration  or 
for  other  reasons,  he  often  finds  himself  out  of  touch 
with  things  at  home,  and  having  been  so  long  away 
from  home-friends  and  conditions  in  the  United  States, 
he  is  quite  helpless. 

It  would  seem  that  a  pension  for  Consuls  who  have 
devoted  the  best  years  of  their  lives,  often  in  the  out- 
of-way  places  of  the  earth,  to  serving  and  forward- 


THE  AMERICAN  CONSUL  AND  HIS  WORK     401 

ing  the  interests  of  their  country,  would  be  in  line  with 
strict  and  equal  justice.  In  these  days  when  the  United 
States  is  beginning  to  look  as  never  before  far  out 
upon  the  trade  routes  of  the  world,  it  is  especially  op- 
portune to  ask  whether  sufficient  general  attention  and 
appreciation  are  being  given  to  the  excellent  and  inde- 
fatigable service  which  our  Consuls  are  rendering  to 
the  American  commercial  world. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

WINNING  SOUTH  AMERICANS 

You  must  rush  and  run  if  you  would  fight ;  or  if  you  would 
take  the  best  places  in  the  market.  But  there  are  ideas  which 
require  infinite  time  and  infinite  space  in  Heaven's  light  to 
mature;  and  the  fruit  they  produce  can  survive  years  of 
neglect. — Sir  Rabindranath  Tagore. 

GANIVET,  the  Spanish  critic,  has  said  that  the 
glorification  of  political  and  commercial  activi- 
ties, which  make  up  the  contemporary  notion  of  civili- 
sation, only  leads  to  the  triumph  of  the  commonplace 
and  vulgar  elements  in  society,  and  is  far  from  consti- 
tuting an  ideal  worthy  of  imitation. 

If  we  are  to  understand  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the 
Latin  Americans,  we  must  not  try  to  do  so  in  the  realm 
of  commerce  only,  since  in  this  region  they  are  begin- 
ners, and  industry  and  trade  have  never  bulked  big 
to  them  as  an  end  of  human  existence.  The  dollar- 
mark  is  not  an  open  sesame  to  the  Latin  American  soul. 
As  one  of  their  Spanish  critics  says: 

"The  grandest  enterprises  are  those  in  which  money 
has  no  part  and  the  cost  falls  entirely  on  the  brain  and 
heart.,, 


402 


WINNING  SOUTH  AMERICANS  403 

That  which  Borrow  said  of  the  Spaniards  in  his 
"The  Bible  in  Spain"  is  applicable  to  their  South 
American  progeny: 

"In  their  social  intercourse,  no  people  in  the  world 
exhibit  a  juster  feeling  of  what  is  due  to  the  dignity 
of  human  nature,  or  better  understand  the  behaviour 
which  it  behooves  a  man  to  adopt  toward  his  fellow 
beings." 

President  Woodrow  Wilson  is  reported  to  have  said 
that  the  influences  and  advantages  of  college  life  are 
chiefly  "atmospheric."  It  is  the  atmospheric  influence 
and  condition  of  the  Latin  America  of  to-day,  laden 
with  all  the  heritage  of  the  mediaeval  old  world,  that 
must  be  caught  and  felt,  if  we  are  to  judge  or  fathom 
these  people.  It  is  the  soul  of  the  nation  which  we 
must  study. 

"Were  I  so  tall  to  reach  the  pole, 
Or  grasp  the  ocean  with  my  span, 
I  must  be  measured  by  my  soul — 
The  mind's  the  standard  of  the  man." 

While  its  former  moulding  was  largely  from  Europe 
and  from  North  Africa,  from  whence  the  Latin 
Americans  drew  their  inner  ideals  and  motives  as  well 
as  their  moral  and  spiritual  standards  of  life,  in  the 
later  years,  especially  since  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  when  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  Amer- 
icans threw  off  the  yoke  of  the  old  world,  the  outer 
influences  have  reached  them  from  both  Europe  and 
the  United  States.     It  was  North  America,  as  well  as 


404      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

France,  that  gave  inspiration  and  confidence  to  these 
struggling  South  American  republics,  in  their  battle 
against  the  "crowned  people"  of  Europe.  The  Mon- 
roe Doctrine,  maligned  and  criticised  as  it  has  been  at 
times,  both  by  Americans  and  Europeans,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  its  promulgation  was  a  protecting  barrier 
against  the  European  monarchies.  Its  moral  influence 
went  far  to  offset  the  thrust  of  European  aristocracies 
and  monarchical  influence  which  have  been  busy  for 
generations  trying  to  keep  Latin  America  European- 
ised.  The  Constitutions  of  virtually  all  the  Central  and 
South  American  republics,  modelled  on  that  of  the 
United  States,  have  been  a  link  binding  these  peoples  to 
the  new  world. 

Politically,  the  Latin  Americans  belong  to  the  West- 
ern Hemisphere,  and  the  sense  of  liberty  and  rights 
of  free  nations  is  everywhere  strong  and  regnant. 
The  statecraft  on  paper  in  these  countries  is  thor- 
oughly democratic.  The  fact  that  performance  has 
not  lived  up  to  promise  is  due  to  the  strong  heredity 
of  Iberian  traits  and  customs,  the  natural  tendency  of 
the  Latin  temperament  to  mingle  and  be  influenced  by 
Continentals  rather  than  by  the  Saxon  or  North  Arryeri- 
can,  and  also  in  part  because  the  physical  conditions  of 
South  America  have  been  inconsistent  with  the  leading 
abilities  of  the  nations  responsible  for  their  develop- 
ment. The  Latin  Americans,  especially  those  of  the 
educated  classes,  would  thrive  best  in  a  country  with 
all  its  natural  resources  garnered,  its  mountains  tun- 
nelled, its  vast  spaces  interlocked  by  railways  and  its 
institutions  fixed.     In  spirit  they  belong  to  a  settled 


WINNING  SOUTH  AMERICANS  405 

and  conservative  polity,  rather  than  to  a  continent 
needing  the  pioneering  engineer  and  the  trader. 

A  people  placing  the  dignity  of  gentlemanhood  be- 
fore the  necessity  of  agriculture,  and  considering  ro- 
mance, politics  and  artistic  endeavours  more  to  be 
honoured  than  the  development  of  the  country  com- 
mercially or  economically,  are  worlds  removed  from 
the  "Yankee"  with  his  latent  ingenuity  in  mechanical 
pursuits,  his  allegiance  to  land  development  and  money- 
making,  and  his  Anglo-Saxon  habits  of  plodding  and 
the  overcoming  of  physical  obstacle. 

While  the  Latin  American,  as  every  one  bears  wit- 
ness, is  not  lacking  in  intelligence,  he  is  poorer  in  the 
spirit  of  that  kind  of  enterprise  that  "goes  up  to  oc- 
cupy" unexplored  and  undeveloped  continents.  He  is 
adaptable  to  this  kind  of  a  work  only  to  a  limited 
extent.  He  begins  with  enthusiasm,  but  he  lacks  the 
power  of  sustained  effort.  He  is  learning  at  present, 
and  quite  rapidly  in  spots,  but  he  has  inherited  among 
other  things  a  lax  discipline  of  will,  which  renders 
his  effort  spasmodic  and  partial.  The  Latin  Americans 
have  never  applied  seriously  and  as  a  whole  their  rich 
gifts  of  imagination  to  business,  as  have  the  North 
Americans.  They  have  been  willing  to  sit  back  and 
allow  the  enterprising  European  or  American  to  come 
in  and  furnish  both  capital  and  skilled  practical  ability 
for  the  development  of  mines  and  the  building  of  docks 
and  roads.  Like  the  Easterner,  until  very  recently, 
the  cultured  admirer  of  arts,  letters,  music  and  law,  has 
let  the  "legions  thunder  past"  with  their  modern  scien- 
tific appliances  and  machinery.  The  South  Americans 
have  been  satisfied  with  the  less  practical  sentiments 


406     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

of  friendship,  chivalrous  and  correct  forms,  bookish- 
ness,  and  the  exercise  of  oratory  and  speech,  in  which 
arts  they  have  to-day  few  masters. 

The  Latin  American  spirit  and  attitude  of  mind 
has  been  well  set  forth  by  a  Latin  American,  Senor 
Francisco  J.  Yanes : 

"A  charge  frequently  made  against  us  Latin  Amer- 
icans, and  in  a  sense  true,  is  that  we  are  a  race  of 
dreamers.  Perhaps  it  is  so.  We  inherited  from  our 
forefathers  the  love  of  the  beautiful  and  the  grand; 
the  facility  for  expression  and  the  vivid  imagination 
of  our  race;  from  them  we  inherited  the  sonorous,  ma- 
jestic Spanish,  the  flexible,  musical  Portuguese,  and  the 
French,  language  of  art,  and  a  responsive  chord  to  all 
that  thrills,  be  it  colour,  harmony  or  mental  imagery; 
we  inherited  their  varying  moods,  their  noble  traits, 
and  their  shortcomings,  both  of  which  we  have  pre- 
served, and  in  certain  cases  improved,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  our  environment,  our  majestic  mountains,  our 
primeval  forests,  the  ever-blooming  tropical  flowers, 
the  birds  of  sweetest  wild  songs  and  wonderful 
plumage;  under  magnificent  skies  and  the  inspiration 
taken  from  other  poets  and  writers,  be  they  foreign  or 
native,  who  have  gone  through  life  like  the  minstrels 
of  old  with  a  song  on  their  lips  and  an  unsatisfied  yearn- 
ing in  their  hearts." 

That  such  temperament  is  foreign  in  general  to  the 
direct  and  utilitarian  American  of  the  colder  North, 
is  apparent.  That  we  must  learn  to  understand  it,  to 
adapt  ourselves  to  it,  yes,  and  win  it  to  ourselves  by 
sympathetic  imagination  and  an  effort  of  will  and  in- 
telligence, is  also  patent;  that  is,  providing  we  are  ever 


WINNING  SOUTH  AMERICANS  407 

to  see  anything  like  a  Pan-America,  with  a  co-operating 
and  mutually  inter-dependent  people. 

How  are  we  to  win  the  Latin  America  of  such  men- 
tal and  spiritual  endowment?  This  is  the  question  of 
questions  for  every  North  American,  be  he  student, 
trader,  preacher  or  teacher,  to  seriously  consider. 

First  of  all,  we  must  abolish  that  provincialism 
which  takes  the  attitude  that  "We  are  the  people,  and 
wisdom  will  die  with  us."  The  great  war  is  doing 
much  to  break  down  these  isolating  walls  of  prejudice 
between  us  and  France  and  England  especially.  After 
this  war  we  will  not  find  men  of  intelligence  fighting 
over  the  old  battles  of  the  Revolution  of  the  United 
States  from  the  mother  country,  and  on  the  other  hand 
we  will  not  find  a  certain  type  of  Englishman  treating 
America  with  that  indifferent  superciliousness  that  ex- 
isted more  or  less  in  Matthew  Arnold's  time,  when 
Britishers  were  inclined  to  adopt  toward  us  an  attitude 
of  condescension,  which  we  have  been  using  far  too 
often  in  this  generation  toward  the  Latin  Americans. 
With  men  like  Lord  Bryce  and  Arthur  Balfour  to 
translate  Americanism  to  Britishers,  and  with  the  inter- 
mingling of  hosts  of  soldier  youth  in  a  common  des- 
perate task,  we  may  be  assured  of  the  breaking  down 
of  the  barriers  between  international  fraternity,  par- 
ticularly as  regards  Great  Britain.  As  regards  France, 
the  entire  world  will  be  drawn  to  her  perforce  after  the 
magnificent  heroism  and  sacrifice  in  the  name  of  honour 
that  she  has  exhibited  against  her  malignant  foe. 

But  what  of  our  relations  with  Latin  America  ?  To 
be  sure,  we  shall  know  more  about  these  people  both 
through  the  enforced  trade  brought  about  by  the  war, 


408      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

and  also  because  they,  as  a  whole,  are  practically  with 
us  in  sentiment,  if  not  in  every  case  in  actual  bearing 
of  arms  against  a  common  enemy  of  republicanism  and 
a  world  of  peace  and  unalarmed  industrial  progress. 
Yet  there  will  be  a  long  way  to  go  after  all  this  has 
been  gained  before  we  really  win  the  soul  of  Latin 
America. 

We  must  come  to  know  them  as  they  are,  a  highly 
cultivated  and  sensitive  race  at  the  top  of  their  society, 
with  little  or  no  middle  class  as  yet,  while  below  lie 
the  great  populations,  still  more  or  less  ignorant,  with 
little  knowledge  of  us,  and  politically  without  a  voice. 
We  must  understand  that  this  is  a  proud  people,  in- 
heriting chivalric  and  European  ideas  regarding  their 
homes,  their  women  and  their  deportment.  We  must 
learn  that  only  men  sent  to  Latin  America  who  can  get 
quickly  points  of  view  of  other  people,  need  to  be  sent 
there.  Their  languages  are  important  for  us  to  know 
for  it  is  through  the  native  speech  that  any  people  re- 
veal themselves.  But  the  conception  of  the  Latin 
American  must  change  through  the  desire  and  effort  of 
study  and  thoughtful  travel  and  intercommunication 
generally,  if  we  ever  hope  to  reach  the  understanding 
of  the  inner  life  of  the  people. 

One  can  hardly  win  his  allegiance  and  sympathy, 
when  one  pictures  him  as  a  savage  or  a  coloured 
man,  lover  principally  of  revolutions  and  bull-fights. 
Neither  can  one  have  much  influence  in  a  land  of  which 
we  are  as  childishly  ignorant  as,  in  the  United  States, 
we  are  to-day  of  our  southern  neighbours. 

It  is  also  possible  to  paint  a  too  roseate  picture  of 
commercial  opportunity  in  South  America.    Those  who 


WINNING  SOUTH  AMERICANS  409 

represent  it  as  the  unadulterated  Land  of  Promise  and 
an  Eldorado  wherein  fortunes  can  be  had  for  the  ask- 
ing, should  also  show  the  other  side  of  the  shield,  mak- 
ing their  readers  as  certain  of  the  obstacles  and  condi- 
tions of  success  as  of  the  attractive  possibilities. 

South  America  is  waiting  for  population,  but  this 
does  not  mean  that  every  kind  of  an  American  is  needed 
down  here,  or  that  men  sent  here  promiscuously,  with- 
out careful  preparation,  succeed.  The  list  of  South 
American  failures  is  a  long  one.  If  one  doubts  this 
statement  let  him  talk  with  any  American  Consul,  who 
has  served  any  length  of  time  in  this  country,  whose 
sympathy,  ingenuity  and  pocketbook  have  been  thor- 
oughly exercised  in  the  attempt  to  get  well  meaning  but 
misinformed  Americans  "back  to  the  States." 

South  America  is  indeed  an  Eldorado.  It  has  un- 
told wealth  in  mines,  in  agricultural  lands,  in  forests,  in 
cattle  and  sheep,  in  tropical  products  of  almost  every 
kind  and  description.  Its  matchless  resources  have 
hardly  been  discovered  as  yet  in  many  sections,  but  the 
reason  for  this,  it  should  be  stated  plainly,  lies  in  the 
fact  that  there  are  huge  walls  of  difficulty  to  be  climbed, 
and  without  capital,  brains  and  indomitable  courage, 
the  door  to  these  riches  can  not  be  unlocked. 

The  pioneer  American  finds  in  South  America,  as 
he  has  found  in  the  Philippines,  that,  no  matter  how 
rich  in  natural  resources  may  be  the  section  of  his  se- 
lection, without  means  of  transportation  his  investment 
is  absolutely  without  value.  Good  roads,  railroads, 
country  highways,  even  ox  carts  and  cattle  roads  are 
among  the  first  necessities  in  South  America  to-day. 
In  many  parts  of  these  countries  the  opportunities  at 


410      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

present  are  chiefly,  if  not  entirely,  for  men  of  large 
capital.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  American  will 
find  more  than  his  match  in  small  shopkeeping  in  the 
present-day  Portuguese  and  the  Spaniard,  who  are 
natural-born  shopkeepers,  and  are  satisfied  with  a 
smaller  gain.  A  big  department  store,  like  a  big  hotel, 
would  have  an  excellent  chance  in  nearly  any  one  of 
the  larger  South  American  cities.  The  only  city  in 
South  America  which  possesses  a  department  store  to 
be  compared  to  the  greater  ones  of  North  America  is 
Buenos  Aires,  and  virtually  the  same  thing  could  be 
said  concerning  hotels. 

As  to  agriculture  and  colonising,  the  average  Ameri- 
can feels  decidedly  out  of  place  in  trying  to  compete 
with  the  European  peasant  on  the  rolling  hills  of  Rio 
Grande  do  Sul  or  on  the  flat  levels  of  Argentina.  The 
American  farmer  demands  a  standard  of  living  with 
schools  for  his  children,  and  things  which  are  to  him 
necessities  of  life  which  are  not  found  in  the  agricul- 
tural sections  of  these  countries. 

For  the  big  industrialists  or  captains  of  industry,  the 
doors  are  wide  open.  South  America  needs  new 
municipal  plants,  new  dock  works,  railroads  to  pene- 
trate the  interior,  banks,  mills,  and  manufacturing 
enterprises,  and  public  service  of  almost  every  kind. 

Knowledge  is  power,  and  the  ability  to  speak  Spanish 
or  Portuguese  learned  from  some  school  in  the  United 
States,  will  help  the  prospective  business  man  going 
south  of  the  Rio  Grande;  but  unless  his  equipment  is 
also  founded  upon  a  bank  account  plus  patience  and 
adaptability  to  conditions  alien  to  his  own,  he  had  best 
remain  in  the  United  States. 


WINNING  SOUTH  AMERICANS  411 

Furthermore  the  spirit  of  the  South  American  is  par- 
ticularly sensitive  to  criticism  and  a  loose  kind  of  writ- 
ing which  has  brought  about  much  misunderstanding. 
"We  do  not  mind  being  criticised,"  said  one  Latin 
American  to  me,  "but  we  like  to  have  the  critic  show 
both  sides."  In  other  words  they  like  to  have  some  of 
the  things  they  have  accomplished  along  lines  which  to 
them  are  praiseworthy,  played  up  a  bit,  as  well  as  their 
business  failures  and  moral  shortcomings. 

The  press  is  a  power  in  Latin  America,  and  the 
people  take  the  written  word  with  more  seriousness 
than  do  the  North  Americans,  accustomed  to  seeing 
themselves  and  their  public  men  caricatured. 

An  American  official,  located  in  a  South  American 
city,  who  was  asked  recently  how  the  press  of  the 
United  States  could  assist  in  fostering  better  relations 
with  Latin  America,  said: 

"In  the  first  place,  the  press  should  tell  the  truth 
about  people  and  conditions  down  here." 

We  are  assured  that  this  official  did  not  wish  in  his 
reply  to  be  understood  as  placing  the  press  of  the 
United  State",  in  the  Ananias  column,  but  wished  to 
aim  a  shaft  against  the  careless  writing  about  South 
America  which  is  inclined  to  over-emphasise  certain 
sensational  features  of  life  there  at  the  expense  of  ad- 
justed perspective. 

The  present-day  traveller  rarely  visits  a  section  in 
Latin  America  without  hearing  how  some  of  our  jour- 
nalists have  whisked  through  these  cities  and  written 
back  to  the  "States"  some  generalisations  which  have 
been  drawn  from  a  too  limited  observation.  Some  of 
these    have   been   serious   handicaps   to    conscientious 


412      UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

writers  who  have  been  really  desirous  of  getting  at  facts 
at  the  expense  of  time  and  travel,  not  simply  in  the 
coastal  cities,  but  also  in  the  out-of-the-way  sections. 

One  South  American  city,  especially,  has  been  unfor- 
tunate of  late  in  having  a  series  of  visits  from  irrespon- 
sible writers  who  have  "written  up"  the  public  men 
with  such  careless  regard  for  the  facts  as  to  cause  seri- 
ous discussion  and  in  one  case,  at  least,  a  cablegram  of 
apology  from  the  "States"  to  the  Southern  republic. 
A  certain  book  written  not  long  ago  by  an  American 
who  took  occasion  to  point  out  the  weakness  of  these 
Southern  peoples  with  little  attempt  to  suggest  any 
points  of  strength  which  they  possess,  was  taken  up 
in  Congress  by  one  republic,  where  it  was  held  up  as 
an  example  of  North  American  inability  to  understand 
the  Latin  Americans. 

Another  matter  of  extreme  importance  in  dealing 
with  the  members  of  American  republics  other  than 
our  own  is  our  attitude  toward  the  coloured  question. 
A  keen  Brazilian  said  to  me:  "Unless  the  people  of  the 
United  States  take  a  different  attitude  to  the  coloured 
question  down  here  than  they  do  at  home,  our  close 
and  permanent  friendly  relations  are  doomed." 

He  did  not  mean  that  we  were  necessarily  to  reverse 
our  policy  in  the  United  States  concerning  marriage 
between  people  of  different  colour,  but  rather  that  we 
should  recognise  that  there  is  no  colour  line  in  Brazil, 
and  that  throughout  Latin  America  where  the  white 
blood  had  been  mixed  freely  with  that  of  the  Indian, 
and  in  some  parts  with  the  negroid  strain,  there  could 
not  be  drawn  the  distinct  line  of  demarcation  as  here 
amongst  us.     When  members  of  the  national  Academy 


.WINNING  SOUTH  AMERICANS  413 

of  Letters,  politicians  of  note,  and  writers  and  poets  of 
distinction  are  ostensibly  dark-skinned,  and  proud,  es- 
pecially of  their  coboclo  blood  [mixture  of  European 
and  Indian]  it  stands  to  reason  that  a  discrimination 
of  acquaintances  based  on  the  fact  of  face  pigment  is 
impossible.  Americans  or  Europeans  who  reside  in 
these  countries  successfully  are  quick  to  discern  the 
conditions,  and  act  accordingly.  It  is  not  so  easy  for 
us  dwelling  thousands  of  miles  away,  and  a  slip  of  the 
pen  that  classes  these  people,  whose  complexion  in  gen- 
eral is  that  of  Spain  or  Southern  Italy,  among  South 
African  negroes,  is  a  tragic  mistake.  It  is  high  time 
for  us  in  the  United  States  to  realise  that  the  vast 
populations  of  the  planet  are  of  a  colour  of  skin  differ- 
ent from  our  own,  and  by  that  reason  not  necessarily 
our  inferiors. 

It  is  on  the  basis  of  equality,  not  theoretical  but  real, 
that  we  are  to  win  the  South  American.  None  are 
quicker  to  resent  patronage  of  any  kind.  Justly  so, 
since  their  best  are  on  a  level  of  understanding  and  cul- 
ture not  inferior  to  that  of  North  Americans  or  Euro- 
peans. Many  keen  students  of  nations  think  that  the 
Latin  American  is  ahead  of  us,  when  found  at  the 
summit  of  his  society,  both  in  cosmopolitan  knowledge 
and  brain  power. 

It  is  important  that  we  as  a  nation  understand  these 
matters  and  study  to  be  liberal-minded,  seeking  to 
find  what  a  people,  not  our  own,  desire  as  things  worth 
while,  rather  than  what  we  may  chance  to  regard  as 
important.  No  one  race  or  nation  is  complete  in  and 
of  itself.  Every  people  have  a  distinct  contribution 
for  the  completeness  of  the  world's  idealism  and  ac- 


414     UNDERSTANDING  SOUTH  AMERICA 

complishment.  The  East  has  stood  for  spiritual  gifts 
as  the  West  has  given  the  material  things,  the  organisa- 
tion and  the  modern  science.  Yet  these  latter  are 
powerless  and  puny  props  without  the  aspirations  and 
satisfactions  of  the  spiritual  and  ideal  elements  by 
which  also  men  must  live. 

If  the  South  Americans  incline  toward  the  traits  that 
are  our  opposites,  things  that  flavour  of  the  Orient,  of 
sentiment,  family  life  and  romantic  and  chivalric  at- 
tachments, let  no  one  say  they  are  by  this  fact  inferior. 
America  needs  soul  to-day.  Money  and  vast  organi- 
sation of  capital  are  the  possessions  of  the  northern 
sphere.  To  the  south,  the  great  hemisphere  is  rich 
in  feeling,  conscious  of  cultured  and  polite  inheritance, 
placing  a  great  emphasis  upon  pleasures,  fine  arts  and 
gentlemanhood,  not  without  attention  to  friendship  and 
easy  human  relations  unknown  to  a  like  degree  in  the 
brisker,  more  abrupt  north.     These,  too,  are  needed. 

"We  are  members  one  of  another."  The  world  is 
one.  God's  children  come  from  the  east,  the  west,  the 
north  and  the  south.  They  all  come,  too,  bringing 
gifts.  Fortunate  is  the  man  or  nation  who  can  see  all 
life  steadily  and  see  it  whole. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Academy  of  Letters   (Brazilian), 

28 
Agriculture,  U.  S.  Dept.  of,   398 
Almagro,  companion  of  Pizarro, 

144 
Americans,  will  tell  truth  to  save 

time,  29 
American  Defense  Society,  publi- 
cation of  German  addresses, 
68,  69 
Ana,  Santa,  Steamship  Lines,  210, 

212 
Andes,     furnishing    obstacles    to 
commerce,  51,  52 
transportation    by    mules    and 
llamas,   118 
Antofagasta,    102;    nitrate    port, 

221 
Arequipa,  150 

Argentina,    advanced  women  of, 
338,   339 
German  sentiment,  65  ff. 
parade  against  Germany,  66 
plains  of,  228 
political    history   of,    253 
population,  26 
the  Argentines,   227   ff. 
Army  and  Navy,  of  Ecuador,  95, 

96 
Asquia  Alta,    an  Andean  moun- 
tain village  described,  148  ff. 
Atahualpa,  entrapped  by  Pizarro, 

158 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  S.  S.  Co.,  220 
Aurucanians,  in  Chile,  26 
Austria,    shoe    trade    with   Peru, 

194 
Automobiles,  American  cars  used, 
317,   319,   320 
automobiling  in  Brazil,   312  ff. 
European   cars    used    as   taxis, 
316 


Automobiles,  in  Buenos  Aires,  231 
Aztecs,  versus  the  Incas,  152,  153 

Balfour,    Arthur,    interpreter    of 

internationalism,  408 
Banks,   needed   in  Panama,   82 
Barbosa,  Dr.  Ruy,  statesman  and 

orator,  describes  present  day 

Brazil,  305  ff. 
Barrett,  John,  23 
Bible,   ignorance  of,  360  ff. 
Bingham,       quoted       concerning 

Panama  Canal,  72 
Black  List,  British,  in  Brazil,  63 

in   Chile,    57 
Blaine,     Jas.     G.,     Secretary    of 

State,  23 
Bogota,  customs  of  students,  35 
Bolivar,      Simon,     The     George 

Washington  of  South  Amer- 
ica,  100 
Bolivia,  business,  climate,  etc.,  98- 

105 
German  trade  prospers  in,  50 
military  service  compulsory  for 

Indians,   102 
most  insistent  needs,  105 
population   of,   26 
Borrow,    author    of    "The    Bible 

in  Spain,"  quoted,  404 
Branco  Rio,  Brazilian  Statesman, 

305 
Brazil,  Academy  of  Letters,  28 
aristocracy    of    higher    classes, 

289,  290,  291 
as   Brazilians   see    her,    298    ff. 
attitude  to  colour  question,  302, 

303 
attitude  towards  Germans,  296 
declares  war  with  Germany,  65 
described  Germans,  62,  63 
German   colonies,   48,    64 


417 


418 


INDEX 


Brazil,  land  of  the  Gauchos,  the, 
268 
men   of  Brazil    described,   284 

ff. 
open  minded  advance,  45 
Britishers,  number  of  in  Argen- 
tina, 236 
Browning,  Dr.  W.  E.,  educational 

work  in   Chile,   355   ff. 
Bryce,  Grace  &  Co.,  English  firm 

in  Peru,  214 
Bryce,    Lord,    quoted    concerning 
cattle  and  horses,  261 
knowledge  of  U.  S.,  408 
regarding     divergent     Ameri- 
cans, 319 
Buenos  Aires,  city  de  luxe,  the, 

243.  ff- 
described,  230  ff. 
educational  institutions,  391   ff. 
hotels    and    department   stores, 

411 
Jockey  Club,  240 
materiality  and  splendour,  234 
population  and  area  of  second 

largest  Latin  city,  250 
railroad  from  La  Paz,  101 
shipping  service  to,  210 
stock  shows,  234,  235 
Business,  American  business  men 

caricatured,    39 
American   investment   in   Peru, 
desire  for,  122 
Brazilians'       attitude       towards, 

commercial      activities      infra 

dig,  108,  109 
dignity  required,  32 
gentlemen    of    leisure    popular, 

113 
handicapped  by  varying  export 

duties,  33 
opportunities    on    West    Coast, 

186   n\ 
shopkeeping  in  Cuzco,  137 
two  prices,    112 
women's  attitude  towards,  336 

Cavalcanti,  Dr.  Amaro,  Judge 
and  Senator,  describes  Bra- 
zil's political  needs,  298  ff. 


Cariocaus,     their     characteristics 

and  gambling  spirit,  316 
Catholics,    church    in    Argentina, 

233 
church  in  Chile,   167 
combating    German    sentiment, 

55 
Cattle,   life  of  the  South  Ameri- 
can cowboy,  261   ff. 

raising  of,  256,  257 

Argentina,  229 

South  Brazil,  64 
Cereo  de  Pasco,  copper  mines  in 

Peru,    120 
Characteristics,   114,   115  ^ 

attitude  of  mind,  407   ^ 

attitude  to  time  saving,  29  - 

courtesy  demanded,  32  - 

gentlemanhood   in  Chile,   167 

human  dignity  elevated,  311 

lacks  persistence,  42 

love    of    peace    and    letters    in 
Brazil,   303,   304 

love    of    pretentious    buildings, 
35.  36 

medievalism,    186,    187 

necessary  to  know,  21 

no  middle  class,  184 

of  Brazilians,  284  ff. 

of  South  Americans,  28-30 

Oriental  resemblances,   31-46 

prefers  gambling  to  out-of-door 
sports,  40 

spiritual  qualities  of,  403  ff. 

theoretical    rather    than    prac- 
tical, 32 

traditions  strong,  191 
Chicha,  the  South  American  bev- 
erage,   129 

Peruvian  national  drink,  224 
Chile,    awakening    of,    357 

business  conditions,   198 

capital  needed,  173 

climate  of,    164 

dignity  of   labour,   168 

German  influence,  55-62 

history   of   education,   380   ff. 

men  of  Chile,  164  ff. 

military  inclinations,  181 

modernising  of,  20 

nitrate,  166 


INDEX 


419 


Chile,  patriotism  of,  179 
Tapeline  Republic,  the,  165 
women  and  business,  337 

Christianity,      adherents     of     in 
Peru,  349 
ignorance  of  Bible,  360  ff. 
Protestant     Church     in     Chile, 

353  ff- 
statement    of    Catholic    priest, 

365 
Church,  cathedral   at  Cuzco,   157 
catholic   influence    in   Ecuador, 

catholic,  mediaeval  tendency  in 

Peru,   106,  341   ff. 
condition    in    Argentina,  358  ff. 
described     by      inhabitant     of 

Peru,  190,  no 
devotion  to  in  Chile,  351 
festival  in  Cuzco,   348 
upheld  by  women,  331 
Climate,  reminding  of  Orient,  31 
Coal,  need  of  working  mines  in 

Peru,  121 
Cochabamba,  101,  102 
Coco,   leaves  used  for   food   and 

drink,   140 
Coffee,   fazenda,   Sao  Paulo,   286 
Collegio  National  de  Guadeloupe 

of  Peru,  371 
Colon  Theatre  of  Buenos  Aires, 

240 
Colour  questions,  413  ff. 
Commerce,  Department  of  U.  S., 

397,  .398 
Commissions,  trade,  194,  195 
Constant,     Benjamin,     leader    of 

Brazilian  positivism,  301 
Consul,    the    American,    and    his 
work,  394  ff. 
duties   of,   396   ff. 
salary  of,  401 
Copper,  mines,   193,  120 
Cotton,  rich  possibilities  in  Peru, 

117,   118 
Cotton  mills,  of  Peru,  221 
Cowboy,  in  South  America,  261  ff. 
barbecues  on   the   large   estan- 
cias,  276 
Customs,  United  States,  398 
Cuzco,  buried  treasure,   376,   377 


Cuzco,  city  of  colour,   103 
city  of  the  sun,  life  described, 

135,   151 
University  of,   373 
temple    of    the    sun,    143,    344, 

345 
wages  of  Indians,  146 
women  of,   141 

Da    Costa,     Senora,  quoted    re- 
garding    statue  on    Andes, 
.  330,  331 
Deities,     worshipped  by     lncas, 

343,   344 

Development,  industrial,  in  Chile, 
220,   221 
of  social  life  in  South  Ameri- 
can camps,  223,  224 

Dom  Pedro  II,  beloved  ruler  of 
Brazil,  292,  293,  307 

Ecuador,  army  and  navy,  95,  96 

chief  need  of  people,  92 

climate  of,  94 

constitution  of,  95 

geographical    and    commercial, 
87-98 
Education,  athletics,  378 

Brazilian  students  in  U.  S.,  302 

Chilean  students  in  U.  S.,  176 

Chilean   system,   380 

co-education,  384 

collegio,   370,  371 

compulsory  in  Peru,  132 

condition  of  in  Panama,  83 

convent  schools,  334 

cost  of,   370 

degree  day,  377,  378 

denied  by  Spanish  conquerors, 

91 

German  teachers  in  Chile,  383 
Industrial     education     needed, 

380 
in  Ecuador,  92,  93 
in  Argentina,  388  ff. 
in  Uruguay,  271 
kind  needed  in  Chile,  168 
lack  of  resources  in  Brazil,  303 
literature  and  memoriter  work 

preferred,  41 
mission  schools,  355  ff- 


420 


INDEX 


Education,  Peruvian  problems,  369 
primary     Education     Bill     in 

Chile,  174 
Protestant    Theological    Semi- 
nary in  Chile,  354 
religion  of  students,  390 
religious  training  in  Chile,  35a 
State  control  of,  388 
South  Americans  at  school,  367 

ff. 
Students  in  Chile  love  politics, 

170 
student  life,  372-386 
Talco,  agricultural  school,  384 
teachers,  387 
technical  colleges,  385 
University  of  Cuzco,  138 
Uruguayan     boys    in     American 
schools,  276 
woman's  education,  333 
El  Misti,   Volcano  of,   151 
English,  trade  of  in  Chile,  172 
Estancias,  in  Argentina,  228,  229 
life  of,  characterised,  255,  256 
Europe,  pleasure  ground  of  South 
Americans,   176 
giving  ideals  to  South  Ameri- 
cans,  190 
Grace  and  Co.,  220 
European   War,   effect  on   trade, 
197  ff. 

Fzzenda,  the,  of  Brazil,  268 
Family  life,  bulks  large,  29 
giving    distinction     in    Brazil, 
290,  291 
Finances,    condition    of    in    Uru- 
guay, 276  ff. 
income  and  wealth  of  Argen- 
tines, 256 
banks  and  money  standards  in 

Uruguay,  281,  282 
National   City  Bank  of  N.  Y. 
representative  quoted,  276  ff. 
of  Peru,   217 

Prodigal  use  of  money  by  Ar- 
gentines, 236 
Forestry,    on    the    sides    of    the 

Andes,   121,  122 
France,  Latin  loyalties  to,  295 
philosophy  of,   390 


France,   attention  to,  408 
why  Brazilians  cleave  to  her, 
302 
Franck,  Harry,  quoted,  35 
French,  population  of  in  Argen- 
tina, 236 

Ganivet,  Spanish  critic,  quoted 
regarding  Spanish  speaking 
peoples,  42,  43 

regarding  commercial  activi- 
ties, 403 
Gama,  Dr.  Domicio  da,  quoted 
regarding  importance  of 
knowing  South  American 
names,  298 
Gaucho,  the  South  American 
cowboy,   261    ff. 

the  Uruguayan  type,  267 
Gardiner,  W.  H.,  quoted  on  Prus- 
sian plans,  68,  69 
Germans,    attitude   of  Brazilians 
toward,   296 

colonising  in  Chile,  173 

distrust  of,   56,   57,  63 

in    South   America,   47-71 

interned  ships  in  Chile,  53 

newspaper     propaganda,      189, 
190 

nitrate  production,  197 

"penetration"  of,  48 

population    in    South    America, 
68 

propaganda,  58,  59 

teachers  in  Peru,  369;  in  Chile, 

383 
Giesecke,  Dr.  Alberto  A.,  Amer- 
ican Rector  University  Cuz- 
co, 374 
Gomez,    General    Juan    Vicente, 

ruler  of  Venezuela,  67 
Government,  American  Consular 
Service,  394  ff. 
collegiate    presidency    plan    in 

Uruguay,   273,  274 
constitution    of    the    U.    S.    as 

model,  291  ff. 
Brazil      bloodless      revolution, 

307 
favouritism  in  politics,  181 
in  Chile,   169  ff. 


INDEX 


481 


Government,   of  Incas,    155    ff. 
politics  and  the  Brazilians,  285 
political    reform    needed,    308, 

3?? 
political  promise  and  perform- 
ance, 405 
protection  of  church,  353,  357 
positions  desired,   33,   180 
revenue  and  civil  code,  Brazil, 
299  ff. 
Great     Britain,     investments     in 

Argentina,  253 
Guayaquil,  city  of  "yellow  jack," 

87,    88 
Grace  Institute,  helping  Peruvian 

morals,  225 
Grace,  W.  R.  &  Co.,  208  ff. 
assumes    Peru's    national    debt, 

217 
branches  of,  219,  220 
W.     P.     Grace     and    Panama 
Canal,  222,  223 

Havens,    V.  L.,   regarding  meth- 
ods    of     trade     with     South 
America,  201 
Health  conditions,  87,  88 
bathing  customs,  103 
death  rate  of  children  in  An- 
des,  146 
in  Ecuador,  87,  88 
annual  bath  in  Cuzco,  141 
Home  life,  of  Chileans,  172,  183; 
of  Peruvian  Indians,  130,  131 
mortality  of  children  on  West 

Coast,  340 
South    American    women,    339, 

340 
Horse    raising,    present   condition 

of  industry  in  Uruguay,  273 
Hospitality,   29 
Hurley,      Chairman,      cementing 

Pan-American   relations,   211 

Incas,   1 3  5-1 51 

contrasted  with  Aztecs,  152,  153 

clemency  of,  153 

laws  and  customs  of,  152-163 
Immigration,  Brazilians'  desire 
for,  297 

Argentine,  237,  238 


Immigration,  forbidden  by  Spain 
in   early  years,  91 

kind  desired  in  Chile,  173 

kind  wanted  in  Uruguay,  272 

of  Argentines,  230 

plans  for  in  Bolivia,  104 
Indians,   advancement  and  relig- 
ion of,  25 

agricultural   pursuits,    147,    148 

Aurucanians,  26 

characteristics  of,  127 

curse  of  alcohol,  104 

followed  by  the  Gaucho  in  Ar- 
gentina, 262 

giving  of  land  to,  346,  347 

helplessness  of,  48 

Inca  Empire,  124,  125 
'   Incas,  old  highways  of,  159 

industrial  training  needed,  133 

influence  of  Inca  monarchy,  161 

lack  of  schools  in  Ecuador,  93 

languages  of,  27 

marriage    and    romance,     131, 
132 

number  of,  124 

numbers    of    in    Bolivia     and 
Peru,  25 

of  Paraguay,  27 

of  Peru,   124-134 

population  in  Ecuador,  92 

suspicious    of    the    white    man, 
126 

woman  with  spindle,  103 
Ins^tuto    Ingles,    description    of, 

355   ff- 
Instituto    Ward,    for    commercial 

education,  364 
Italians,  of  Argentina,  230 
population  of  in  Argentina,  236 

Jamaica,  219 

Japan,     compared     with     South 

America,  44,  45 
Joinville,  German  town  in  South 

Brazil,  48 

Kingsley,  Charles,  quoted,  248 
Kipling,   Rudyard,   quoted,   323 
Koebel,    W.    H.,    description    of 

South  American  Gaucho,  264, 

265 


422 


INDEX 


Labour,  peculiar  labour  laws  in 

Uruguay,  270 
Land,  agrarian  laws  of  Incas,  136 
of  cattle,  232 
rapid    advances    in    prices    of, 

Argentina,  235,  236 
wealth  of   Argentina,   229 
Language,   generous   and  flowery 
use  of,  37,  38 
South     Americans     sympathise 
with  foreigners'   poor    Span- 
ish, 36,  37 
utility  necessary  for  trade,  203, 

204 
journalistic  fluency,  242 
La  Paz,  mecca  of  the  Andes,  100, 

101,  102,  103 
La  Prensa,  Argentine  newspaper, 

241  ff. 
Latifundia   system   in   Argentina, 

the,  255 
Law,  schools  of  numerous,  33 
Llamas,  as  carriers,  52 

"the  living  scales,"  119,   120 
trails    of    from    Cuzco    to    the 
Pacific,  315 
Lodge,  Sir  Oliver,  quoted  regard- 
ing belief,  341 
Lobos,  M.  Eleodore,  speaks  of  Ar- 
gentine colonisation,  239 
Lumber,  mills  in  Bolivia,  221 
Luro,  Pedro  la  Basque  immigrant 
millionaire      of      Argentina, 
254 
Lusttania,  effect  of  sinking,  63 

Manta,  worn  in  Chile,  182 
Marriage,    between    blacks    and 
whites,  302,  303 
Inca  customs  of,   159 
in  Peru,  335,  336 
Mercantile,  Institute  at  Santiago, 
branch  school  in  La  Paz,  105 
Merchant  marine,  American,  212 

relation  to  trade,   225 
Mendoza,     and     her     vineyards, 

227,  228 
Mestizo,  in  Ecuador,  87 

numbers  of,  25 
Mexico,  attitude  of  Latin  Ameri- 
cans to,  293 


Military   rule  of  Incas,   157 
Minerals,    found    in    Peru,    118, 

119 
Missions,    conducted   by   foreign- 
ers, 364 
progress    of    Protestant    Chris- 
tianity,  353    ff. 
Protestant,    secret    meetings    in 

Chile,  352 
schools,  355  ff. 
Theological  Seminary,  354 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  Chile,  353 
Misti,  Mount,    192 
McAdoo,     Secretary,    speaks    re- 
garding   new    shipping    line, 
211 
McKinley,   President,   and  Pana- 
ma Canal,  222 
Monroe  Doctrine,   Brazilians  fa- 
vourable to,  300 
barrier  against  European  mon- 
archies, 403 
no  longer  paper  shibboleth,  71 
Montevideo,     Capital     of     Uru- 
guay, 269 
Montavon,  Wm.,   quoted  regard- 
ing needs  of  trade,   188,   189 
Moslems,    compared    with   Incas, 
i57 

Navy,  U.  S.,  related  to  consular 

work,  398 
Negroes,  coloured  question,  413 

found  in  Brazil,  285 

lack  of  training  for  citizenship, 

25 

number  in  Peru,  124 
Newspapers,     La     Prensa,     The 
Standard,    La    Nacion,    influ- 
ence of,  412 

El  Diario,  La  Razon,  241  ff. 

advertisements      of      religious 
services,   353 

publicity      concerning      U.      S. 
needs,   189 
Nicaraguan  Canal,  early  propri- 
etor, 222 
Nitrate,  fields  in  Chile,   115,  166 

Germany's  production  of,  197 

loss  of  by  Peru,  196 

population  engaged,  173,  174 


INDEX 


433 


Ordonez,   Jose    Bartley,    political 

leader  of  Uruguay,  272 
Orientalism,  among  South  Amer- 
icans, 31-46 
in  customs  of  Incas,   160 
in  woman's  dress,  332 
patriarchal  home   life,   183 
strain  of   in  Brazil,  297 
the  Oriental  Republic,  269 

Pan     Americanism,     co-operation 

required,   407,   408 
help  of  students,  392,   393 
improvement   of   knowledge   of 

consular     service     necessary, 

395 
paper  idealism,  45 
helped    by    German    intrigue, 

70,  71 
solved  by  personal  contact,  304, 
305 
Pan   American   Union,   organisa- 
tion and  work  of,  23,  24 
Panama,  Army  and  Navy,  85 
business  and  politics  in,  72-86 
description  of,  72-74 
education,  83 
Exposition   of,    84 
Paraguay,    Brazilian    war    with, 
304 
Indian  Republic,  the,  27 
Pardo,  President  of  Peru,  quoted 
concerning     business     enter- 
prises, 122 
Paris,  liked  for  a  holiday,  401 
early  efforts,   222 
imitated  in  South  America,  231 
Panama  Canal,  a  liberator,  44 

cost  of,  72 
Panama  hats,  from  Ecuador,  89 
Pezet,    Seiior   Don   Frederico  A., 

quoted,  31 
Peru,  Capital,  119 
characteristics     of     Peruvians, 

106-116 
copper  mines,  193 
Humboldt     quoted      regarding 

Peru,  117 
irrigation  needed,  118,  192 
finances  of,  217 
marriage  ceremonies,  in 


Peru,  natural  resources  of,   117- 
123 
need  of  caring  for  Indians,  162 
old  Inca  monarchy,    161    ff. 
President  of  Peru   quoted  con- 
cerning business,   122 
publicity  plan  needed,   189 
population  of,  26,  27 
rich  products  of  the  soil,  117-120 
railroads,  193 
safety  of  investment,  121 
schools  for  Indians  needed,  107 
society  of,  109 
sugar  factories,  193 
trade   with  the   United   States, 

123,    193 
women  of,   332  ff. 
Petroleum,     Peruvian    oil     fields 

second  in  the  world,  121 
Philip  II,   policy  of,  44 
Piquante,   the  vegetable   stew   of 

South  America,   130 
Pizarro,   Francisco,   Governor   of 

Ecuador,  89,  90 
Plate,  River,  252 
Plaza    de    las    Armas   of    Cuzco 

described,   136-138 
Politics,    a   gentleman's   vocation, 

33 
Porras,  Dr.,  President  of  Panama, 

interview   with,   79-84 
Portinos,      the      inhabitants      of 

Buenos  Aires,  described,  252 

ff. 
Portugal,  influences  of  in  Brazil, 

289  ff. 
Portuguese,     element    in    Brazil, 

284 
proverb  regarding  trade,  188 
Ports,   new  dock  works  in   Uru- 
guay, 270 
on  West  Coast,  211 
Positivism,  in  Brazil,  285 

rise  of  in  Brazil,  301 
Potosi,  silver  mines  of,  102 

Queiroz,  Senor.  Souza,  quoted 
regarding  Brazilian  affairs, 
291  ff. 

Quichuas,  of  Peru,  103 

Quito,  88,  89 


424 


INDEX 


Races,   how  composed,   24-27 
Railroads,  of  foreign  capital,  254 

of  Peru,  217 

recently  built  in  Panama,  82 

shops  in  Chile,  221,  222 

Transandean,   210,   218 
Railways,  condition  in   Uruguay, 
279,   280 

number  of  miles  in  Brazil,  314 
Religion,    Argentine    professor's* 
idea   of,   259,    358 

Brazilians  indifferent  to,  285 

Catholics  in  Chile,  167 

by  conquest  like  Moslem,  157 

condition  of  in  Brazil,  301 

Inca    and    Roman    faith    con- 
trasted, 341,  342 

of  Argentina,  233 

of  Argentine  women,  338,  339 

of  Incas,   155 

of  South  Americans,  341  ff. 

reality  needed  in  Peru,  349,  350 

Sun  worshippers,  343,  344 
Republics,  number  of,   24 

taking  time  to  develop,  92 
Revolutions,  in  Panama,  80 
Rio     de     Janeiro,     automobilists' 
paradise,   the,   321,   322 

distributing  centre  for  automo- 
biles, 320 

"It  is  Rio  that  I  mean,"  poem, 

325,  327 
Its    environment    and    beauty, 

323-327 
Sea  that  guards  Rio,  the,  323  ff. 
Theatre  presentations  of  Amer- 
icans, 39 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  rolling  hills 

of,  411 
Rondon,  Col.,  friend  of  Brazilian 

Indians,  133 
Roosevelt,  Colonel,  men  who  suc- 
ceed, 208 
visit  to  Brazil,  287,  288 
Root,   Elihu,   impression   of  visit, 

287 
Roads,  need  of  in  Brazil,  312  ff. 

Sacsahuaman,  fortress  of,  138 
Saint   Francis   de    Sales,    quoted, 
32-53 


Salabarresta,    Policarpa,    Colom- 
bian heroine,  329 
Sanfuentes,     Senor     Juan     Louis, 

the     man     of     the     Chilean 

"White  House,"  168 
interview  with,  171   ff. 
San    Marcos,    University   of,    371 
Santiago,  city  of  aristocracy,   178 

ff. 
college  of,  356 
Sao  Paulo,  character  of  the  Paul- 

istas,  291 
Santa    Cruz,    required    industrial 

and  maritime  population,  239 
Serochee       (mountain      sickness), 

characteristics    of    in    Andes, 

120 
Shipping,  ships  and  trade,  213 

to  South  America,  209  ff. 
Singer  Sewing  Machine  Co.,  78 
Socialism,  signs  of  in  Chile,  170 
South  America,  cowboy  of,  261  ff. 
possibilities    of    agriculture    in 

the  Andes,  128,  129 
socialism  as  seen  in  Argentina, 

259 
South  Americans,  attitude  to  col- 
our   lines,    28 
admire  women,  40 
attitude  to  work  that  of  Span- 
iards, 39,  40 
characteristics  of,  27,  30,  36 
conception   of  Americans,    190 
contrast  with  Japanese,  22,  44, 

48 
contrast  with  N.  Americans,  29, 

30 
desire  government  positions,  33 
fluent    in    speech,    37,    38,    41 
hospitality    and    friendship    of, 

29,  30 
love  of  display,  96,  97 
lovers  of  music,  114 
mental  endowments  of,  32 
message    to    North    Americans, 

116 
moral  characteristics,  no,  III 
opinion  of  Germans,  60,  61 
Oriental  traits  of,   31-46 
penchant  for   ornate  buildings, 
36 


INDEX 


4*6 


South  Americans,  point  of  view 
of,  19-30 

politeness  must  be  cultivated,  32 

racial  mixtures,  22 

sensitive  to  criticism,  412 

susceptible  to  official  attention, 
76 

soul  and  heart  qualities,  403  ff. 

temperament,  85 

winning  their  regard,  403  ff. 
South   and  Latin  America,    anti- 
social tendency  of,  43 

climate,  31 

cost  of  living  in,  205,  206 

diversity  of  population,  27 

early  settlements  of,  34 

cities,  much  alike,  178 

how  settled,  22 

North  and  South  America,  415 

number  of  republics,  24 

population,  22 
Spain,  families  in  Chile,  167 

Spanish     ancestry     strong     in 
Peru,  191 

Spanish    civilisation     deficient, 

43.  44 
6panish,   adventurers,  their   aims 

in  South  America,  107,  108 
influence  in  Ecuador,  89,  90 
traditions    handicapping    South 

America,    239,    246 
Standard  Oil  Co.,  78 
Sucre,  101,  102 
Sugar  cane,  cultivation  in  Peru, 

118 
Sundays,  bill  prohibiting  Sunday 

work  in  Bolivia,  104 

Tagore,         Sir        Rabindranath, 

quoted,   403 
Temperance,    agitation   of,    354 
Trade,    Bolivian,    Great    Britain 
and  Argentina,  237 
conditions  necessary  for  Ameri- 
can trade  with  Uruguay,  274, 
275 
customs,  revenue,  97 
American     enterprise     entering 

Ecuador,  94 
experts    from    Argentina,    227, 
228 


Trade,  interpreted  by  Spanish 
critic,  403 

manufactures  and  industries  of 
Uruguay,  278  ff. 

new  possibilities  through  Pana- 
ma canal,  74 

development  related  to  consular 
service,  396  ff. 

opinion  of  business  man  of 
Panama,  74,  75 

Peruvian  commerce  with  Unit- 
ed States,  123 

pioneers  in,  208  ff. 

possibility  of  in  ships,  220 

President  Pardo  quoted,   122 

prohibited  with  outside  nations 
by  Spaniards,  91 

suggestions    to    Americans,    77, 

78 
the   South  American's  question 

to  North  America,  "What  do 

we  get?",   86 

tropical  products,  122 

Traveller,  American,  abroad,  395 
ff. 

Travelling  salesmen,  kind  need- 
ed, 203   ff. 

Treasure,  buried  in  Cuzco,  376, 
377 

University,  of  Santiago,  381,  382 
Uruguay,    the    fighting    Gaucho, 

267 
Uruguay    and    the    Uruguayans, 
general  description  of,  269  ff. 
financial  integrity  of,  276  ff. 
economics  contrasted  with  state 

of  Nebraska,  280,  281 
population  needed,  279 
United  States,   relation  to  A.  B. 
C.  diplomacy  pleasing,  293 
how  considered  by  Latin  Amer- 
icans, 287 

Vegetable  ivory,  industry  in  Ecua- 
dor, 89 

Viga,  Santos,  the  minstrel  of  the 
Pampa,  266 

Viera,  Dr.,  President  of  Uru- 
guay, interview  with,  270,  271 


426 


INDEX 


War,  declared  by  Brazil  against 
Germany,   65 
by  other  republics,  67 
Watson,  William,  quoted,   178 
West     Coast,     snipping     service 

shortened,  209,  210 
Wilson,       President's       writings 
known    to    South   Americans, 
quoted     relative     to     college 
life,  404 
Women,  Argentine  types,  257,  258 
Chilean  women  beautiful,  182 
at  "Vermuth  time",  185,  186 
church  attendance  in  Peru,  no 
contrasted  with  Americans,  294, 
295 


Women,  education  of,  333 

entering     business     in     Brazil, 

294 
in  senate  at  Lima,  332 
Indian  in  Andes,  103 
seclusion  of,  31 
South  American,  328  ff. 

Wyckham,  William,  quoted,  33 


Yanes,  Francisco  J.,  quoted  on 
characteristics  of  Latin 
American  mind,  407 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, in  Chile,  353;  work  in 
Buenos  Aires,  363 


3 


V 


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